
Book- 



3^1 



X 



1 



The History 



OF THE 



First North Carolina 

Reunion 



AT 



Greensboro, N. C. 




Odober Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth 
Nineteen Hundred and Three 



Compiled and Edited by 

George S, Bradshaw, Esq. 



GREENSBORO, N. C. 

JOS. J. STONE & CO. 

MCMV 



By Tranatet. 
3JI'0S 



Index 



Page 

Board of Managers of the First North Carolina Eeunion 7 

Resolution Authorizing the Publication of the History of the First North 

Carolina Reunion ^ 

Foreword ^ 

Special Message of the Governor 12 

Resolution of the General Assembly 13 

The Serious Purposes of the Reunion, by Charles D. Mclver 14 

Welcome Home, by G. S. Bradshaw 15 

Reception Committee on the Part of the State of North Carolina 16 

Reception Committee on the Part of the County of Guilford 17 

Reception Committee on the Part of the City of Greensboro 18 

Ladies' Reception Committee 19 

Local Committees 20 

Official Program 21 

The Proceedings 27 

Sermon by Rev. Charles W. Byrd, D. D 29 

Sermon by Rev. Walter W. Moore, D. D. LL. D 33 

The Reunion Sermon, by Rev. A. C. Dixon, D. D 39 

The Reunion Exercises 53 

Opening Announcement by President Charles D. Melver 55 

Address of Honorable Matthew Whitaker Ransom, on Assuming the 

Chair 56 

Address of Welcome on Behalf of the State, by Governor Charles B. 

Aycock 63 

Address of Welcome on Behalf of the City of Greensboro, by Colonel 

James T. Morehead 69 

Response of Honorable Francis E. Shober, of New York 73 

Response of Mr. William H. Futrell, of Philadelphia 75 

Response of Mr. .lohn Wilbur .Jenkins, of Baltimore 78 

Response of President R. P. Pell, of South Carolina 80 

Response of Honorable L. D. Tyson, of Tennessee 81 

Response of Mr. Peter M. Wilson, of Washington, D. C 85 

Response of Rev. W. W. Moore, D. D., of Richmond, Va 86 

Entertainments 93 

At State Normal and Industrial College 95 

At Greensboro Female College 96 

At the Guilford Battle Ground 99 

Invocation by Rev. W. W. Moore, D. D 101 

Address by Honorable A. L. Fitzgerald, of Nevada 101 

3 



4 First North Carolina Reunion 

Page 

Address by Shepard Bryan, Esq., of Atlanta, Ga 107 

Address by Dr. Paul Barringer, of the University of Virginia 109 

Address by Mr. Murat Halstead, of Ohio 110 

Address by Mr. R. M. Hartley, of Indianapolis, Ind 118 

Address by Honorable Jos. M. Dixon, of Montana 119 

Address by President E. A. Alderman, of Tulane University, Louisiana 122 

Address by Kev. A. C. Dixon, D. D., of Boston, Mass 125 

Remarks of Judge Francis D. Winston, of North Carolina 127 

Resolutions (Guilford Battle Ground) 128 

(the late Judge David Schenek) 128 

Brilliant Climax 131 

Resolution of Thanks l.';3 

Voices of the Absent 135 

Practical Results 137 

Extract from Letter of Woodrow Wilson, President of Princeton 

University 138 

Extract from Letter of Speaker Cannon 138 

Extract from Letter of Representative Small 139 

Extract from Letter of Samuel Hill, Esq 139 

Letter from Hannis Taylor 140 

Extract from Letter of Bishop Fitzgerald, of Nashville, Tenn 141 

Too Good to Be Withheld 141 

Echoes of the Keunion 143 

A Good Thing, by Frank S. Woodson, of the Richmond Times- 
Dispatch 145 

The Reunion, by Colonel Paul B. Means 145 

Let It Be Made Permanent, by J. P. Caldwell 146 

A Glorious Inspiration, l)y Colonel R. B. Creecy 147 

Home-Coming Reunion, by James Wiley Forbis 148 

Among Our Non-Resident Native Lawyers 149 

Among the Grandsons 149 

Around the Ancestral Hearthstone 151 

"Reunion" Changed to "Old-Home Week" 153 

Beautiful Souvenir 155 

States Represented 156 

North Carolina Mecca, by Joaephus Daniels 157 

Guilford Courthouse Battlefield, by President Joseph M. Morehead, 

of the Guilford Battle Ground Company 158 

Guilford Battlefield — Two Facts Emphasized, by G. S. Bradshaw, Esq. 159 

North Carolina's Contribution to American Citizenship 162 

Marvelous Record of North Carolina from 1890 to 1900, by C. H. Poe 163 

The State 's Song— The Old North State 166 

Greensboro 's Phenomenal Growth Since 1890 167 

' ' Pat ' ' Winston 's Last Message to His Old Home 169 

An Epitome 170 

The Purest Anglo-Saxon State on the Globe, by President George T. 

Winston, of the Agricultural and Mechanical College 171 

Song of Scattered Sons, by John Wilbur Jenkins 173 

The Coming Day, by D. C. Waddell 174 

To Her Sons Who Have Wandered Afar, by Robert Dick Douglas. . . . 175 

The Wanderer Back Home, by John Henrj' Boner 176 



List of Illustrations'^' 



■' North Carolina State Capitol Frontispiece 

^^ Board of Managers of the First North Carolina Reunion Fronting Page 9 

■^ Honorable Charles B. Aycoek, of North Carolina Fronting Page 13 

>^Mr. W. H. Ragan, Chairman of County Reception Committee. .Fronting Page 17 
■^ Honorable W. H. Osborn, Mavor of the City of Greensboro. . .Fronting Page 19 

' Mr. Andrew Joyner, Chairman of the Press Committee Fronting Page 21 

* Honorable Walter Clark, of North Carolina Fronting Page 25 

'^ Rev. C. W. Byrd, D. D., of Atlanta, Ga Fronting Page 29 

^ Rev. W. W. Moore, D. D., LL. D., of Richmond, Va Fronting Page 33 

■^ Honorable Robert M. Douglas, of North Carolina Fronting Page 37 

^ Rev. A. C. Dixon, D. D., of Boston, Mass Fronting Page 41 

y Honorable F. M. Simmons, of North Carolina Fronting Page 45 

■^ Honorable W. W. Kitchin, of North Carolina Fronting Page 49 

V Honorable J. M. Gudger, of North Carolina Fronting Page 53 

^ Honorable M. W. Ransom, of North Carolina Fronting Page 57 

y Honorable John H. Small, of North Carolina Fronting Page 61 

V Hcmorable E. Y. Webb, of North Carolina Fronting Page 65 

'^ t'olonel James T. Morehead, of Greensboro Fronting Page 69 

>/ Honorable Francis E. Shober, of New York Fronting Page 73 

•/ Mr. W. F. Futrell, of Philadelphia Fronting Page 75 

V Honorable Spencer Blackburn, of North Carolina Fronting Page 77 

vMr. John Wilbur Jenkins, of Baltimore, Md Fronting Page 79 

V President R. P. Pell, of Converse College, South Carolina Fronting Page 81 

v' Honorable L. D. Tyson, of Tennessee Fronting Page 83 

V Mr. Peter M. Wilson, of Washington, D. C Fronting Page 85 

V Honorable J. Bryan Grimes, of North Carolina Fronting Page 89 

/ Honorable Benj. R. Lacy, of North Carolina Fronting Page 93 

'' State Normal and Industrial College, Greensboro, N. C Fronting Page 95 

^ Mrs. Lucy H. Robertson, President of Greensboro Female 

College Fronting Page 97 

■^' Honorable A. L. Fitzgerald, of Nevada Fronting Page 101 

V Honorable Robert D. Gilmer, of North Carolina Fronting Page 105 

■I Mr. Shepard Bryan, of Atlanta, Ga Fronting Page 107 

>/ Dr. Paul Barringer, of the University of Virginia Fronting Page 109 

'I Mr. Murat Halstead, of Ohio Fronting Page 111 

■i Honorable B. F. Dixon, of North Carolina Fronting Page 113 

* Note— The editor, with pardonable pride, refers to the list of fine engravings to be 
found 'in this volume, the procurement of which involved no little expense, labor, and time 
It will be noted that the list is cotifined to those Carolinians — resident and non-resident — who 
personally attended or contributed to the success of the First North Carolina Reunion. 

In this connection, the editor acknowledges, with ijrateful appreciation, his indebtedness 
to Mr. Jos. J. Stone for his a(5tive and kindly assistance in the preparation of this volume. 

5 



6 First North Carolina Reunion 

•J Honorable James Y. Joyner, of North Carolina Fronting Page 117 

' Mr. R. M. Bartley, of Indiana Fronting Page 119 

s Honorable Joseph M. Dixon, of Montana Fronting Page 121 

V President E. A. Alderman, of Tulane University, Louisiana. .Fronting Page 123 

V Honorable H. B. Varner, of North Carolina Fronting Page 125 

s Honorable Francis D. Winston, of North Carolina Fronting Page 127 

4 Honorable David Schenck, LL. D., First President of the 

Guilford Battle Ground Company Fronting Page 129 

■i Honorable S. L. Patterson, of North Carolina Fronting Page 133 

V Honorable James E. Boyd, United States District Judge Fronting Page 137 

' Honorable Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois Fronting Page 139 

V Honorable Hannis Taylor, Ex-Minister to Spain Fronting Page 141 

•J Honorable J. C. Pritehard, United States Circuit Judge Fronting Page 145 

■i Mr. J. P. Caldwell, Editor of the Charlotte Obeserver Fronting Page 147 

4 Honorable Joseph M. Hill, of Arkansas Fronting Page 149 

■/Colonel A. B. Andrews, First Vice-President of the Southern 

Kail way Fronting Page 153 

vi Reunion Souvenir Fronting Page 155 

-I Mr. Joscphus Daniels, Editor of the Raleigh News and 

Observer Fronting Page 157 

•I Major Joseph M. Morehead, President of the Guilford Battle 

Ground Company Fronting Page 159 

' Honorable \. M. Aiken, of Virginia Fronting Page 161 

4 Group of North Carolina College Presidents Fronting Page 1^-i 

4 Geographical Location of Greensboro Page 168 

4 Dr. J. Allison Hodges, of Richmond, Va Fronting Page 169 

Honorable Hoke Smith, of Georgia Fronting Page 173 



^/ 




The Board of Managers of the First 
North Carolina Reunion 



Charles D. Mclver, Chairman 

J. A. Odell Robert R. King J. W. Fry Ceasar Cone 

George S. Bradshaw 

Secretary, Robert D. Douglas Treasurer, Lee H. Battle 



Resolution Unanimously Adopted by the 
Board of Managers 



Resolved, That Mr. George S. Bradshaw be requested, authorized, 
and empowered to compile, edit, and publish iu book form the proceed- 
ings, including the Sermons and Addresses of the First North Carolina 
Reunion, together with such other pertinent material as he may deem 
proper. 




Ceasar Cone 
Robert R. Kin 



Board of Manafit'rs of the First North Carolina Ki-imioii 

J. A. Odell 
Charles D. Mclver 
George S. Bradshaw 



J, \V. Fry 
I,ee H. Battle 



Foreword 



Pursuant to and in compliance with the foregoing resolution of the 
Board of Managers the task therein imposed is assumed in the hope 
that its fulfilment may justify the confidence thereby reposed. 

The idea of a Reunion of the non-resident sons and daughters of 
North Carolina originated in the fertile brain of Dr. Charles D. 
Mclver, the distinguished president of the State Normal College. It 
was at his suggestion and chiefly by his efforts that the city of Greens- 
boro, in her official capacity, and through her various business organi- 
zations, was induced to adopt the idea and plan for its successful 
development and execvition. Encouraged by the ready enthusiasm 
with which his idea was received. Dr. Mclver submitted it to Governor 
Aycock, who in turn communicated it with his hearty indorsement to 
the General Assembly (then in session). The result was a ringing 
resolution unanimously adopted by the General Assembly, in which 
the hearty concurrence of the State was pledged to the furtherance of 
the plan and in extending "to the absent sons and daughters a welcome 
hearty and sincere". 

The movement thus projected having met with such spontaneous 
and cordial indorsement by the press and the people of North Carolina, 
and with such generous and enthusiastic response from former resi- 
dents in other States and countries, it was deemed advisable to crystal- 
ize the sentiment in an organization for promoting an Annual Reunion 
or Old-Home Week. It was, therefore, decided to organize a permanent 
Reunion Association under a regular charter, which has been granted, 
in order to establish permanently an Annual Reunion or Old-Home 
Week for North Carolinians scattered throughout the country, and in 
order that it may be held annually on a more extended and desirable 
scale. At an informal meeting of the charter members and other 
stockholders of this Association held in the rooms of the Merchants' 
and Manufacturers' Club, in the city of Greensboro, in August, 1903, 
an executive committee, consisting of Honorable James E. Boyd, Dr. 
Charles D. Mclver, Mr. J. A. Odell, Mr. Robert R. King, Captain 
J. W. Fry, and Mr. George S. Bradshaw, was appointed with authority 
and full power to devise the plan, scope, and details of the First North 

F. N. C. R.—II 9 



10 First North Carolina Reunion 

Carolina Eeuuion, and with instructions to report the same to a mass- 
meeting of the citizens of Greensboro to be held in the Grand Opera 
House at a later date to be fixed by said committee. 

Accordingly, and agreeable to its instructions, this committee, after 
many conferences and much work, extending over many days, formu- 
lated and completed the plan and scope of the Reunion, selected the 
various committees, and mapped out the work of each. So thorough 
and satisfactory was its work that its report in full and in detail was 
unanimously adopted by the said mass-meeting. From this report, 
submitted through Judge Boyd, and supplemented by him with a 
stirring and eloqvient appeal to this mass-meeting, started the final 
wave of enthusiasm which culminated in the glorious success of the 
First North Carolina Eeunion. It was deemed appropriate to fix the 
date of the beginning of the Reunion proper upon the twelfth of Octo- 
ber, which is by statute "North Carolina Day", upon which day the 
schools and colleges of the State suspend their regTilar work, and 
devote the day to the study of North Carolina history. This, in brief, 
is the history of the origin of the movement, and in the following 
pages will be found the details of its development and execution. 
Whilst this hasty compilation does not aspire to the dignity of histori- 
cal work, and whilst many of the utterances recorded in the following 
pages were extempore and inspired by the occasion, the editor is 
induced to believe that scattered through its pages are many facts and 
much material which are worthy to be preserved, and which will appeal 
not in vain to North Carolina's future historian. In the perusal of 
these pages the reader will readily recognize and appreciate the embar- 
rassment of the editor and compiler in the attempt to present the 
quantity and varietj' of the material at his disposal in the most attrac- 
tive form. Without precedent in the line of this peculiar task he is 
left to the defects of his own judgment and taste, and to the charity 
of those who may read or review with critic's lense the compilation 
and arrangement of matters herein treated. Its chief, if not its only, 
charm is the distinctive North Carolina flavor with which its pages are 
spiced. 

Invoking and trusting to the joyous spirit of the occasion, the editor 
does not hesitate to assure the reader that there will be found in the 
utterances inspired by the First Reunion of non-resident and resident 
North Carolinians gems rare and racy from every field of thought and 
from every line of toil in which North Carolinians have wrought and 
won in the uplifting and upbuilding of themselves, their communities, 
their States, and the great institutions of their country. Nor does the 
writer hesitate to place on record the fact that the First North Carolina 
Reunion was a decided success. It was a success in its fine and joyous 



First North Carolina Reunion 11 

spirit, in its purpose to foster a beautiful fraternal feeling, in the 
large attendance from home, in its home-gathering of "absent sons 
and daughters ' ', in the renewal of old associations, in the cementing of 
old ties, in the hearty hand-elasp of old f riendsliips and in the forma- 
tion of new ones, in the heart-to-heart and face-to-face mingling of 
kith and kin, in the inspiration and instruction imparted, in seeing 
and knowing what manner of men the old mother has reared and 
loaned to other States, in showing whatever of good those at home have 
done and wrought, in the burial of all political and other asperities, 
in giving vent to the genuine Tarheel pride of home and love of 
kin, in the filial renewal of allegiance to the sacred claim of both, 
in the larger knowledge and keener appreciation of the good in all, in 
the affectionate acknowledgments of the returning children, and in the 
tender benedictions of the old mother's love. 

This modest volume is designed to be a mere souvenir, and as such 
aspires only to be a simple record of the first Reunion, including com- 
ments thereon and utterances inspired thereby, and embracing engrav- 
ings of some of the Carolinians — resident and non-resident — who 
figured therein and contributed thereto, and is published with the sin- 
cere and sole purpose of stimulating State pride and fostering a greater 
love of the old Mother. 

— Editor. 




Special Message ot the Governor 



The Honorable, the General Assembly: 

The city of Greensboro, iu her official capacity, and through various 
organizations having their headquarters there, has planned a reunion 
of and reception for all the non-resident native North Carolinians, to 
be held in Greensboro on North Carolina Day, October 12, 1903. It 
is the desire that this be made a notable occasion. I am requested to 
ask your honorable body to join with the city of Greensboro and the 
organizations in extending an invitation to those of our citizens who 
have made their homes elsewhere. Our sons and daughters abroad 
have not forgotten the State, nor has the State forgotten them. We 
want to see them face to face, and learn what they have done abroad, 
and show them what we are doing here. The occasion will be one of 
great pleasure, and not without profit to all concerned. I gladly join 
■\\ ith the good city of Greensboro and her people in the invitation which 
they are extending. I trust that your honorable body may do likewise. 

Very respectfully, 

CHARLES B. AYCOCK, 
Governor. 



12 




Honorable Charles B. Aycock 
Governor of North Carolinn 



Resolution of the General Assembly 



Whereas, The city of Greensboro, through its chief executive and 
its Industrial and Immigration Association and Young Men's Business 
Association, has planned a Reunion of non-resident native sons and 
daughters of North Carolina to be held at Greensboro, on "North 
Carolina Day", October 12, 1903; and 

Whereas, It is eminently fitting that on a day set apart by the Gen- 
eral Assembly as one devoted to fostering a patriotic love of the Com- 
monwealth and people, all sons and daughters of the State should meet 
together on the soil that gave them birth, and there renevi^ the bonds of 
love and allegiance to a common mother ; therefore, be it 

Resolved by the Senate, the House of Representatives concurring, 
that in hearty concurrence vrith this expressed purpose of our city of 
Greensboro, the State of North Carolina unites in extending to the 
absent sons and daughters of the State a cordial invitation, and in 
assuring them of a welcome both hearty and sincere. 



la 



The Serious Purposes of the Reunion 



First. To furnish an opportunity for North Carolinians at home 
and abroad to renew and cement old friendships and to form new ones. 

Second. To secure for North Carolina from those who in the for- 
tiines of life have left her borders and made their homes elsewhere the 
inspiration and instruction that their varied experience and wider 
view make them capable of giving. 

Third. To advertise to the country North Carolina's contribution 
to American citizenship, and to so organize her sons and daughters, 
resident and non-resident, that whatever of good there is in the char- 
acter, traditions, and history of the sturdy old commonwealth may be 
impressed upon our national life. 

CHARLES D. McIVER. 



14 



Welcome Home 

« 

A Mother's Welcome — Blood-Warm and Heart- Flavored 
Thrice Welcome to Heart and Home 

The Old North State opens wide her arms to the wandering son 
whose face is homeward set, and to the wandering danghter who jour- 
neys back with beaming smile and queenly step, or with furrowed 
cheek and measured footfall, to the playground of youth, to bask again 
in the sunljeams that break from the rosy dawn of childhood. 

It matters not whether the absent son was led by ambition's goal to 
wander awa3' and out from the gate of the old homestead, or was 
driven by the fierce storm of war, or by the mad winds of ill-fortune, 
or by the heavy hand of necessity or environment, his home-coming 
shall be joyous ; for he shall find his name — be it ever so humble — 
sweetly embalmed in the memory of some unforgotten love. Nor shall 
it matter whether on land or sea he has scaled the dizzy heights of 
fame, or wanders in the valley of the grim shadow of "riotous living" 
and dire want, there shall be for him somewhere within our gates a 
welcome wet with the tears of joy. 

We shall not pause to ask whether the absent daughter comes with 
laurel or -with cross ; nor shall we take note of purple linen or lack of 
fad or style ; but with glad heart and genei-ous hand we shall surrender 
every key to every heart and every home and bid tmcrowned woman- 
hood, whether garlanded with trophy or veiled with cypress, enter and 
take the earth and the fulness thereof. 

Flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, blood of our blood, spirit of our 
spirit, our welcome to them shall be as free, bounteous, and warm as 
October's sunshine of our sunny clime. 

The mill, the shop, the farm, the office, the bank, the school, the 
church — all shall stop and stand with doors — both back and front — 
imloeked and wide open. 

And with every curtain up — with every eye alert and eveiy heart 
aglow — with every home and every door and every avenue wide open, 
we shall show them the sturdy old Commonwealth still rolling and 
luxuriating in the matchless resources of an Empire ; but in a new and 
steadier light, living a better life, on a higher plane, with stronger 
faith and brighter promise. 

And from blue wave to white peak all with one acclaim shall join 
In the ever-fresh and ever-joyous outburst of the glad Father in the 
prodigal parable, "Bring Hither the Fatted Calf". 

GEORGE S. BRADSHAW. 

From the Reunion Edition of AV:rj and Observer 
of September 27, 1903 

16 



Reception Committee on the Part ot the 
State of North Carolina 



Executive 

Charles B. Aycock, Governor, Chairman; J. Byran Grimes, Secretary of 
State; B. F. Dixon, Auditor; B. E. Lacy, Treasurer; Robert D. Gilmer, Attorney- 
General; J. Y. Joyner, Superintendent of Public Instruction; H. B. Varner, 
Commissioner of Labor and Printing; S. L. Patterson, Commissioner of Agri- 
culture. 



Legislative 



Wilfred D. Turner, President of the Senate; Samuel M. Gattis, Speaker of 
the House. 

Judicial 

Supreme Court: Walter Clark, Chief Justice; Walter A. Montgomery, 
Associate Justice; Robert M. Douglas, Associate Justice; Piatt D. Walker, 
Associate Justice; Henry G. Connor, Associate Justice. 

United States Courts: Thomas R. Purnell, Judge Eastern District of North 
Carolina; James E. Boyd, Judge Western District of North Carolina. 



United States Senators 

F. M. Simmons, Lee S. Overman. 

Representatives in Congress 

John H. Small, Claude Kitchin, Charles R. Thomas, Edward W. Pou, William 
W. Kitehin, Robert N. Page, Gilbert B. Patterson, Theo. F. Kluttz, E. Y. Webb, 
James M. Gudger, Jr. 



10 




Mr. U. H. K.isan 
Cliairniaii of Ouilfrjnl Cfninty Cdniinissiomrs and Chnirinan of County Reception Comitiittee 



Reception Committee on the Part of the 
County of Guilford 



W. H. Ragan, Chairman; W. C. Tucker, Jos. A. Davidson, John L. King, 
J. H. Johnson, D. H. Coble, A. G. Kirkman, J. P. Turner, W. T. Whitsett, 
Thos. A. Sharpe, L. L. Hobbs, J. Elwood Cox, W. O. Donnell, J. Henry Gilmer, 
W. J. Armfield, W. G. Bradshaw, J. D. Glenn, Wescott Eoberson, J. C. Kennett, 
J. T. Morehead, J. A. Lindsay, D. P. Foust, W. E. Bevill, J. R. Gordon, T. C. 
Starbuck, W. H. Rankin, W. C. Boren, J. A. Hoskins, F. K. Trogdon, J. F. 
Jordan, G. H. McKinney, J. A. Holt, Chas. H. Ireland, Jesse R. Wharton, 
C. D. Cobb, A. C. Murrow, John A. Young, W. N. Wright, John W. Cook, 
J. J. Welch, T. E. Whitaker, William Ragsdale, J. Van Lindley, J. E. Menden- 
hall, Jos. S. Worth, G. W. Denny, C. H. Wilson, Wm. Love, Joseph Peele, L. M. 
Scott. 



Reception Committee on the Part of the 
City of Greensboro 



W. H. Osborn, Mayor, Chairman; C. G. Wright, President Industrial and 
Immigration Association; P. D. Gold, Jr., President Young Men's Business 
Association; J. J. Kelson, President Merchants' and Manufacturers' Associa- 
tion; R. M. Sloan, Neil Ellington, Lee H. Battle, E. P. Wharton, A. W. McAlis- 
ter, David Dreyfus, W. P. Bynum, Jr., J. M. Millikan, Tyre Glenn, G. A. 
Grimsley, J. M. Morehead, E. P. Gray, A. M. Scales, W. P. Beall, Z. V. Taylor, 
C. M. Vanstory, W. A. Lash, Dred Peacock, C. P. Vanstory, C. D. Benbow, 
C. M. Stedraan, W. P. Clegg, V. C. McAdoo, Jno. N. Wilson, T. J. Murphy, 
W. D. McAdoo, W. R. Land, J. W. Scott, W. W. Wood, J. S. Hunter, G. W. 
Patterson, A. L. Brooks, R. G. Vaughn, A. H. Alderman, W. E. Allen, Z. V. 
Conyers, J. N. Wills, A. B. Kimball, S. H. Boyd, E. J. Stafford, B. H. Merrimon, 
O. C. Wysong, J. S. Michaux, R. M. Rees, L. J. Brandt, C. H. Dorsett, J. C. 
Bishop, D. R. Harry, John H. Rankin, J. L. Brockmann, W. D. Mendenhall, 
J. A. Hodgin, T. A. Glascock, H. J. Elam, R. F. Dalton, J. W. Forbis, G. O. 
Coble, Dixie Gilmer, J. H. Walsh, Lee T. Blair, A. V. D. Smith, J. B. Stroud, 
J. E. Brooks, D. C. Waddell, J. I. Foust, M. W. Thompson, John B. Fariss, 
Howard Gardner, J. S. Schenck, J. T. J. Battle, J. M. Hendrix, J. W. Merritt, 
E. M. Andrews, J. M. Wolfe, S. L. Gilmer, C. Mebane, W. C. Bain, Geo. S. 
Sergeant, J. N. Longest, F. N. Taylor, John M. Dick, C. W. Hoecker, J. W. 
Lindau, J. T. Tate, B. D. Broadhurst, C. E. Holton, J. C. Murchison, W. E. 
Harrison, E. Sternberger, .J. E. Logan, J. A. Barringer, S. J. Kaufmann, J. D. 
Helms, E. J. Justice, M. C. Stewart, E. S. Wills. 



18 




Colonel W . 1:1. ()sl)oni 
Mayor of the City of Greensboro 



Ladies' Reception Committee 



Mrs. B. F. Dalton, Chairman; Mrs. W. E. Allen, Mrs. Lee H. Battle, Mrs. 
James E. Boyd, Mrs. W. P. Bynum, Jr., Mrs. Mamie Crawford, Mrs. David 
Dreyfus, Mrs. J. W. Fry, Mrs. J. S. Hunter, Mrs. Robert R. King, Mrs. 
W. D. McAdoo, Mrs. Charles D. Mclver, Mrs. Joseph M. Morehead, Mrs. 
J. A. Odell, Mrs. Dred Peacock, Mrs. Lucy H. Robertson, Mrs. C. M. Sted- 
man, Mrs. J. P. Turner, Mrs. B. G. Vaughn, Mrs. John N. Wilson, Miss 
Nora Balsley, Miss Lola Carraway, Miss Lizzie Leigh Dick, Miss Charlotte 
Gorrell, Miss Lizzie Lindsay, Miss Mabel Glenn, Miss Alice Nelson, Miss Lizzie 
Sergeant, Mrs. J. A. Barringer, Mrs. W. P. Beall, Mrs. Geo. S. Bradshaw, Mrs. 
Ceasar Cone, Mrs. Robert M. Douglas, Mrs. Neil Ellington, Mrs. J. D. Glenn, 
Mrs. C. H. Ireland, Mrs. W. A. Lash, Mrs. A. W. McAlister, Mrs. E. R. Miehaux, 
Mrs. J. C. Murchison, Mrs. "W. H. Osborn, Mrs. J. M. Reece, Mrs. A. M. Scales, 
Mrs. John N. Staples, Mrs. C. M. Vanstory, Mrs. C. G. Wright, Mrs. E. P. 
Wharton, Miss Kate Bradshaw, Miss Pattie Caldwell, Miss Elizabeth George, 
Miss Sue May Kirkland, Miss Bessie Merrimon, Miss Berta Mebane, Miss 
Rebecca Schenck, Miss Jessie Scott, Miss Nettie Sloan. 



19 



Local Committees 



COMMITTEE ON DECOEATIONS— Clarence E. Brown, Chairman; J. W. 
Cone, F. P. Hobgood, Jr., Mrs. C. L. VanNoppen, Mrs. Carrie G. Yates, Mrs. 
E. W. Myers, Mrs. David Dreyfus, Mrs. Gaston W. Ward, Mrs. James D. Glenn. 

COMMITTEE ON TEANSPOETATION— Zeb. V. Taylor, Chairman; A. B. 
Kimball, L. J. Brandt. 

MUSIC for the occasion to be under the supervision of the Board of 
Managers, with Frank A. Williams as director. 

COMMITTEE ON PROGRAM AND ARRANGEMENTS— G. S. Bradshaw, 
Chairman; P. D. Gold, Jr., A. M. Scales, T. Gilbert Pearson, V. C. McAdoo, 
J. E. Brooks, John N. Wilson. 

COMMITTEE ON DECORATIONS AND LUNCHEON AT BATTLE 
GROUND— Dr. W. A. Lash, Chairman; J. H. Walsh, R. M. Eees, Mrs. C. L. Van- 
Noppen, Mrs. R. E. King, Mrs. J. W. Lindau, Miss Alice Nelson, Mrs. John N. 
Staples. 

COMMITTEE ON BADGES, INFORMATION, AND REGISTRATION— 
D. C. Waddell, Chairman; C. M. Vanstory, W. R. Land. 

COMMITTEE ON FIREWORKS— C. H. Ireland, Chairman; E. D. Broad- 
hurst, J. S. Betts, W. T. Powe, C. C. McLean, F. N. Taylor, A. W. Cooke, J. M. 
Hendrix, H. W. Wharton, T. C. Hoyle, W. C. A. Hammel, H. C. B. Guthrie. 

PRESS COMMITTEE— Andrew Joyner, Chairman; J. M. Eeece, R. W. 
Haywood, W. M. Barber, H. M. Blair, J. F. McCulloch, Al Fairbrother. 



20 




Mr, Aiulrcu Joyner 
Chairman of the Press Committee 



Official Program 



31 



Program of the First North Carolina Reunion 
Greensboro, N. C. 

Odlober Eleventh to Thirteenth 
Nineteen Hundred and Three 



Sunday, Odlober Eleventh 

First Presbyterian Church — 11.00 a. m. 

Sermon by Rev. W. "W. Moore, D. D., 
President Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Va. 

West Market Methodist Episcopal Church — 11.00 a. m. 

Sermon by Rev. C. W. Byed, D. D., 
Atlanta, Ga. 

Grand Opera House — 3.00 p. m. 

Reunion Sermon by Rev. A. C. Dixon, D. D., 
Boston, Mass. 

Monday, Odober Twelfth 

Grand Opera House — 2.00 p. m. 

Invocation. 

Introduction of Honorable Matthew Whitaker Ransom as Presiding 

Officer, by President Charles D. McIver, Chairman 

Board of Managers. 

Address of "Welcome on behalf of the State, by 
Governor Charles B. Aycock. 

Address of Welcome on behalf of the City of Greensboro, by 
Col. James T. Morehead. 

23 



24 First North Carolina Reunion 

Response from the North Carolina Society of New York, 
Honorable Frank E. Shober. 

Response from the North Carolina Society of Philadelphia, 
W. F. FuTRELL, Esq. 

Response from the North Carolina Society of Baltimore, 
Mr. John Wilbur Jenkins. 

Response from the North Carolina Society of Richmond, 
Rev. W. W. Moore, D. D. 

Response from the North Carolina Society of Atlanta, 
Shepard Bryan, Esq. 

Response from the State of Nevada, 
Judge A. L. Fitzgerald. 

Response from the State of South Carolina, 
PREsroENT R. P. Pell. 

Response from the State of Tennessee, 
Honorable L. D. Tyson. 

Response from the District of Columbia, 
Judge J. C. Pritchard. 

Response from the State of Indiana, 
Mr. R. M. Hartley. 

Entertainments — 8.00 p. m. 

The North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College. 

The Greensboro Female College. 

Smoker at Pythian Hall to visiting Pythians. 

Receptions — 9.30 p. m. to 11.30 p. m. — At various headquarters. 

Tuesday, Oftober Thirteenth 

Guilford Battle Ground— 10.30 a. m. 

Address by Honorable Hoke Smith, 
of Georgia. 

Address by Honorable Joseph M. Dixon, 
of Montana. 




Honorable Walter Clark 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina 



First North Carolina Ee union 25 

Address by Dr. Paul Barringer, 
of Virginia. 

Address by ^Ir- Walter H. Page, 
of New York. 

Address by President E. A. Alderman, 
of Louisaua. 

Address by Honorable Murat Halstead, 
of Ohio. 

1.00 p. m. — Basket dinner. 

3.00 p. m. — Central Carolina Fair. 

8.00 p. m. — Cone Athletic Park. Fireworks. 

9.30 p. m. — Smith Memorial Building: General Reception. 

11.00 p. m.— State Song. 

Headquarters 

General Reunion Headquarters The Benbow 

University of North Carolina 108 North Elm Street 

Trinity College The Benbow, Rooms 324-322 

Wake Forest lOli/o Ea.st Market Street 

Guilford College The Benbow, Rooms 316-318 

Davidson College The Benbow, Room 320 

Whitsett Institute The Benbow, Room 326 

Oak Ridge Hotel Guilford 

Randolph County Greensboro National Bank Building 

Cumberland County City National Bank Building 

Knights of Pythias Pythian Building, South Elm Street 

Masons Masonic Hall, Greensboro National Bank Building 

Visiting Editors 212 South Elm Street, and The Benbow 

Chatham and other Counties McAdoo House 

Battle Ground Schedule 

Trains leave City : 9.00 a. m., 9.40 a. m., 10.20 a. m., 11.00 a. m. 

Returning : 2.00 p. ni., 2.40 p. m., 3.20 p. m. 
F. iV. C. R.—III 



The Proceedings 




Rev. C. VV. Bvid, U. D. 

Atlauta, Oa. 



Sunday, Odtober Eleventh 



The Gate City awokr to find within her gates more friends and 
strangers than her beautiful and imposing churches could accommodate 
on the opening day of the Reunion. On all the incoming trains, from 
every direction, since early Saturday morning, resident and non-resi- 
dent in throngs had passed through her gates. It was an auspicious — 
a glorious Sunday. Pilled with the softly-bracing air and delicious 
sunshine of "Sad-eyed October", brightened by the hand-clasp of 
home-coming loved ones, sweetened by the spirit of Reunion that had 
touched and warmed every heart in every home, and made gladsome 
and joyous by the revival of tender memories, its sweet influences 
drew everybody nearer to home, nearer to church, and nearer to God. 
It was a fit day to worship God, and touched by its hallowed environ- 
ments the coldest backslider wanted to follow the multitude to the 
sacred temples. All the churches were overflowing. Spacious and 
commodioiis West Market was wholly inadequate to seat the people 
who wished to hear Rev. Dr. Byrd. The same was true of the Old First 
Presbyterian, where Rev. Dr. Moore ofSciated. 

Following is the full text of the sermon by Rev. Charles W. Byrd, 
D. D., of Atlanta, Ga., delivered in West Market Methodist Episcopal 
Church at 11.00 a. m. : 

The Mission of the Master — The Impartation of Life 

/ am come that they may have life, and that they may have it 
more abundantly. — John 10 : 10. 

This is one of the briefest and at the same time most comprehensive state- 
ments of the mission of Jesus that we have recorded, either in his own utter- 
ances or in those of his apostles. I wouUl be slow to found a doctrine on any 
one statement, even of Jesus himself, but the view that this brief passage 
states the mission of the Master is abundantly sustained in numerous other 
passages. In the first sermon that he ever preached in the home of his youth, 
he read and expounded Isaiah 61, and declared that in him was fulfilled the 
promise of life therein contained, to the Jewish nation, and through them to the 
Gentile world. He declared that he came to seek and to save the lost; but his 
method of saving the lost was by the impartation of life. Then he declared 

29 



30 First North Carolina Reunion 

that he came to do his Father's will; but his Father's will was that the race 
might be fiUed with abundant life. The closing prayer of his life was that the 
world might have life through his mercy and merit. So we have as the proposi- 
tion for our discussion on this occasion ' ' The Mission of the Master — The 
Impartation of Life". There is no subject, perhaps, upon which there has been 
more false thinking than on the purposes of Jesus' ministry. Many have 
thought that he came to found a new religion, and they have told us that his 
religion should be compared with others, and that we should take the best 
there is in all the systems, perhaps giving to the teachings of Christ the pre- 
eminence. I have no objection to the comparative study of religions, and am 
perfectly willing that Christ 's system should be brought into comparison with 
the utterances of Sidartha, Confucius, and Buddha; but what I maintain is, that 
Christ never came to found a religion, but to impart life to man's spiritual 
nature. 

There are three things that are absolutely essential to the founding of a 
religious system: the promulgation of a creed, the establishment of a system 
of worship, and the formation of an organization. But Christ did none of 
these. Roman Catholics have gone to the writings of Christ and formulated 
a system of theology, and declared that this is Christ's teachings; Lutherans 
have done the same, and so have Wesleyan Armenians. But nowhere in the 
utterances of Jesus is there a systematic statement of doctrine. His great 
purpose was not to teach men what to think, but to teach them to think; not 
to promulgate a creed, but to quicken the heart and intellect; not to inform the 
mind simply, but to lift it into communion with God. 

The purpose of the early teachers of philosophy in our schools was to pro- 
mulgate a system of philosophy, and train their pupils to hold and proclaim their 
teachings. But the teacher of philosophy today in our best schools would feel 
that he had failed in his mission if he had simply taught his pupils to think 
his thoughts, to utter his words, and to embody the principles of his system 
in their own thought. The great purpose in the course of philosophy is not to 
teach men to think the thoughts of others, but to think their own thoughts. This 
is but a return to the Master's method. No one who studies the gospels can 
fail to be struck with how he prodded the minds of his disciples with question, 
epigram, and paradox. His whole purpose seemed to be to lead them to think 
on the great questions of their relation to God, their relation to men, and their 
eternal destiny. 

One of the saddest features of the religion of today is, that there are so 
many people who are willing to let their minister do their religious thinking 
for them. They spend the week in thinking of stocks and bonds, real estate, 
dirt and dollars, social functions, and the common dissipations of life, and 
come to church on Sunday morning to accept the sermon of their pastor as the 
necessary weekly dose of religion. My deepest desire and highest purpose is to 
awaken in you thought upon the deep problems of life and destiny, and not to 
do your thinking for you. Such, I conceive, was the Master's purpose, too. 

Christ did not formulate a ritual or form of worship; his purpose was not 
to teach men how to give expression to feelings of love and gratitude and faith, 
but to awaken these feelings in human hearts, and leave them to find expression 
in the way best adapted to the individual. Therefore, Christ had no ritual. 
Roman Catholics and Protestants have formulated rituals, and proclaimed them 
as Christ's ritual; but in this they have been mistaken, for, as the birds have 
their own peculiar methods of praising God— the lark with his early morning 
song, the quail in the early hours of the afternoon, and the whip-poor-will, with 



First Nortli Carolina Reunion 31 

melancholy tone, in the evening shadows — even 80 the human hearts, in varied 
ways and diverse places, give expression to the feeling of devotion that has 
awakened in them. And wherever there is a heart that loves God and loves 
to tell him so, that longs for his help and appeals for it, with feeling of 
gratitude for his goodness and declares it, that is penitent for sin and seeks 
pardon, there is worship; whether it be amid the scenes of the great cathedral, 
with eyes fixed upon the pitiful form of the crucifix; in the dim light of the 
wasting candle, and amid the stately music of well-trained choirs; or in the 
Quaker meeting-house, wholly unadorned and plain, where the heart rises in 
voiceless prayer and praise to God — this is worship. 

Christ formed no organization; his nearest approach to organization was 
when he sent out the seventy on one occasion and the twelve on another, two 
by two, to preach the Word in the cities of Perea and Judea. So the third 
essential of the new religion is utterly wanting in our Savior's work. He 
imparted life, and left it to find its own form of organization; and any form 
of organization is acceptable to him that gives expression to life, whether it 
be the wonderful organization of the great Catholic Church or the loosest 
Congregationalism. 

Christ performed his ofiice of "Imparter of Life" through the use of 
means, however. To some of these I desire to direct your thought on this 
occasion: First, he uses the Church for the impartation of life. And this 
raises the whole question of what the Church really is. I would have you 
realize that it is not a school of ethics, merely teaching men their duty to each 
other; nor is it a school of theology, merely teaching men what they ought to 
think about God, and the unseen as related to God. It teaches ethics, and it 
teaches theology; but they are only incidents of its mission. Wherever there 
are souls that are united by love to God, and loyalty to God, and desire to 
bring his kingdom — first in their own hearts, then in the hearts of their own 
household, then in the world at large — there is the Church of the living God. 
The church is not primarily a fountain of truth or of morals, but of life. It 
may be likened to a river that takes its rise among mountains, and leaps and 
laughs and sings its way down the gorges, and at length reservoirs its strength 
on the great millpond that turns the busy wheels of the factory or grinds the 
grist for a thousand hungry mouths; then gathers into pools where boys come 
when their work is over, and bathe, and go away refreshed and cleansed ; then 
sends its streams out into the broad meadows, and feeds the roots of myriad 
grasses and flowers and trees and vines, that are all unconscious of its life- 
giving power. So, the church is sometimes noisy in its praises to God; then it 
gathers itself into a great reservoir that turns the wheels of philanthropic 
endeavor and Christian enterprise; then it gathers itself into pools where on 
the Sabbath day multitudes come week after week, and go away refreshed and 
cleansed; then it sweeps out amid the busy multitudes that never think of God 
and eternal life, and imparts life even to these indifferent ones and scoffers. 

None can estimate the marvelous power of the church as a reservoir of life 
and salvation. To it we owe all our benevolent institutions, hospitals, asylums, 
and homes of refuge for the fallen and needy; and God himself has no use for 
the so-called church that has ceased to be the imparter of life, and has degen- 
erated into a school of theology that worships a creed rather than a Savior. 

Second, he uses the Bible for the impartation of life; but as men have 
thought falsely about what the church is, so have they cherished misconceptions 
of what the Bible is. Not a few preachers have wasted their lives over the 
doctrine of "verbal inspiration", and inerrancy of the sacred Scriptures; and 



32 First Aorth Carolina Reunion 

not a few have grown gray with anxiety about the work of the higher critics, 
because they have thought that the Bible was a book about religion rather than 
a book of religion. It was never intended to be a record of scientific facts; 
but it is a product of men who had the life of God in their souls, and who have 
written it out in these sacred records. This being true, I am unconcerned about 
the absolute accuracy of its historic statements; knowing as I do, that it is 
now, as it has ever been, a great fountain of spiritual life for all who feed 
upon its words. The Bible is a sacred library, a collection of the best friends 
that have ever counseled or communed with mortals. A book is a friend; a 
good book is a good friend — and sometimes I prefer my friend bound in muslin 
or leather, rather than in flesh; for then I can make him hush while I think. 
I love to think of my library as a collection of friends with whom I can com- 
mune at will, listening to their words of wisdom, loking at the pictures they 
paiut with their vivid imaginations, feeling the thrill of their stories of tender- 
ness, adventure, and love. 

A few evenings ago, when I had finished my preparations for my morning 
sermon, I sat alone in my study. Glancing up at my book-shelves, I asked what 
friend should talk with me that evening. Putting my hand on a small volume, 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese", I let her tell me 
in her own beautiful words the story of her unselfish love for the one man 
whose burden she had consented to help to bear, and whose joys she knew how, 
as no other could, to participate in. Then, taking a volume of Sophocles, I let 
the old master talk to me in that queen of all the tragedies, Antigone, until 
my mind was ablaze with the thought and feeling that pervades that marvelous 
work of human genius. And then I turned to, perhaps the sweetest singer of 
all the Latin poets, and let old Horace talk to me in the musical lines of his 
Sapphic measure, of the heathen gods, Boman patriotism, and human love. But 
when the hour for the close of the evening's study had come, and my thoughts 
turned to higher things and better things than Sophocles and Horace knew, I 
opened the Book of books to listen to the words of rapt Isaiah, and Israel 's 
poet king, and the sweet and tender words of Him "Who spake as never man 
spake ' '. 

As I closed the book, I knew and felt a difference that made me exclaim: 
"This; this, is the Book of Life!" 

Take its history. Is it a record of the great deeds of great men? Not 
always; but often the petty deeds of mean men; but in its history ami 
biographies we feel the breath of God, and are taught that He is in the onward 
march of the human race. Take its poetry. It may not compare in beauty and 
rhythm with the sonorous lines of Greece's blind bard, but in its beauty, 
whether it describes the beauties of nature, or the feelings of the human heart, 
it teaches you that God is back of and under all. And so it is the Book of 
Life, Christ's chief means of the promulgation of life in human spirits. 

Last of all, Christ imparts life by giving himself. Here is a mj-stery that 
human lijjs can not explain, and human minds can not understand. His entrance 
into the heart must be known by experience and spiritual intuition. I stand 
here today to plead with you to assume the receptive attitude, letting him 
have right-of-way. That you may be strengthened by the might of his spirit 
in the inner man. That he may dwell in your heart by faith, and fill you with 
his fulness. That .vou may have this experience, you must live in his presence, 
and let him live in your heart and in your home. He alone can impart life. 

I stood on a ditch bank one day, and looking down at the scragly thorn- 
bush, I bent down the ear of my imagination to hear what it had to say. I 




Rev. W. \V. Mooie, I). D., LL. l). 

President of Inion Theological Seiiiiiinry. Kichmoud, Va. 



First North Carolina Reunion 33 

heard it complain in murmuring tones: "Only a briar, filled with thorns, the 
sign of the curse! If I were but like the violets that grow upon the bank up 
there, I would regale the senses of this stranger who bends over me; or if I 
were like the great oak over there in the field, that lifts its branches in the 
sunshine, I would offer shade and protection to tired man and weary beast; 
but I am only a briar. If I were like the wheat that is yellowing on the hills 
and plains, I would feed a multitude of hungry men; but I am only a briar!" 
Just then I saw the gardener come, and, carefully taking the thorn-bush from 
its place, he transplanted it in a cosy corner of his well-cultivated garden, and 
pruned it, and left it alone. And then I bent down the ear of my imagination 
to listen once more to the voice of the thorn-bush, and I heard it say: "Ah, 
I am still only a briar! What can the gardener have intended in placing me 
in this cultivated spot? It was bad enough to be a briar down there in the 
ditch; but oh, how much worse here among the roses; he will never be able to 
get anything out of me. ' ' Then I heard the gardener laugh and say, ' ' I will 
first put something in you"; and with keen knife he splits the bark of the old 
thorn-bush and places within it a tiny bud, and binds it up, and goes his way. 
The weeks go by, and multitudes gather around the old thorn-bush, and look 
with wonder and admiration; for lo, upon it is a rose of rarest beauty and 
sweetest fraganee. 

You, my brother, are the thorn-bush, full of thorns; but your father is the 
husbandman. He knows the worthlessness of the old root-stock; but he knows, 
too, how to put into you life that will come out some day in beautiful and 
fragrant flowers of Christian character. Let him have right-of-way. Let him 
put into you what he can; and he will get out of you what he wishes. 



The immense auditorium of the First Presbyterian Church was 
crowded with worshipers at 11 o'clock, and hundreds were turned away 
for lack of room. Rev. Walter W. Moore, D. D., LL. D., of the Union 
Theological Seminary, of Richmond, Va., a native of Mecklenburg, and 
highly distinguished in the theological world, preached a magnificent 
sermon. It was this beloved divine who delivered the sermon when the 
splendid building in which he stood this morning was dedicated, ten 
years ago, then, as now, one of the most splendid church edifices in the 
South. 

Dr. Moore's subject was The Making of Transitional Men — What 
Makes Them, and What They Make. His text was from I Samuel 3 : 20 : 
"And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was 
established to be a prophet of the Lord. ' ' 

Following is an abstract of his masterly discourse : 

The Making of Transitional Men 
/ Samuel S : 30 

The loftiest ideal ever set before a nation was that which God placed 
before the Israelites when he entered into covenant with them at Mount Sinai. 
It was expressed in these words: "Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests 



34 First Xorth Carolina Reunion 

and an holy nation". This was no ideal of military glory or material wealth, 
such as most nations have striven to attain. It was an ideal of personal and 
national rijjjhteoiisness, of spiritual privilege, and of helpful service to mankind. 
"Ye shall be unto me an holy nation" — there was God's requirement of righte- 
ousness. "Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests", that is, as the construc- 
tion really means, a dynasty of persons invested with royal rank and priestly 
functions — there was God's appointment of Israel to religious privilege and 
religious responsibility. For priesthood implies not only privilege but duty. 
A priest is a mediator and teacher of God's will. Israel as a priestly nation 
had a ministry to the world. Her mission was to teach religion. Her call to 
it was clearer even than the call of Rome to teach the world organization and 
law, or the call of Greece to teach the world letters and art. The ideal set 
before Israel then was religion — intensive and extensive, if we may use these 
terms for lack of better, meaning by intensive religion truth and righteousness 
realized in their own hearts and lives, and by extensive religion the teaching 
of truth and righteousness to the world. 

You are familiar with the melancholy history of Israel 's failure to realize 
this splendid ideal in the generations immediately succeeding the covenant at 
Sinai. In order to the regular administration of the ordinances of public 
worship, an oflScial priesthood was organized at Sinai, in connection with the 
elaborate system of object-lessons in the tabernacle and its ritual, and a whole 
tribe was set apart to the offices of religion. This tribe, alone, had no territory 
allotted to it among the rest; but instead of a portion of their own the Levites 
were scattered among all the other tribes, occupying specified towns in different 
parts of the country. To this sacerdotal order, and to these Levites. thus 
dispersed among the people, was originally entrusted the principal part of the 
work of spiritual instruction and government. But, during the period of the 
Judges, which has been well called the Hebrew Dark Ages — a period of civil 
and religious disorder, the priesthood itself degenerated, as seen in the scan- 
dalous history of Hophni and Phineas, and the Levites, so far from fulfilling 
the purpose for which they had been scattered over the land, and holding the 
people to their spiritual ideal, became themselves leaders in idolatry, as in the 
case of Jonathan, the grandson of Moses. With the loss of character on the 
part of the priests and Levites, the ceremonialism of which they were the 
exponents necessarily lost its power, and religion lost its hold upon the people. 

Hence arose the necessity for a system of plainer and more effective teach- 
ing, and the demand for a leader of creative genius to organize such a system. 
"The ages call, and the heroes come." In this crisis of the chosen people, 
second only in importance to the Exodus, there appeared a leader second only 
to Moses. Amidst the wreck of the ancient institutions of the country, amidst 
the rise and growth of the new, there was one counselor to whom all turned 
for advice and support — Samuel, the prophet. And so grandly did he meet the 
crisis which evoked him, that for tliree thousand years his influence upon man- 
kind has been second to that of no mere man that has ever lived since his day. 
For (Samuel was not only the organizer of what we call constitutional govern- 
ment, but he was the originator of two of the most potent and beneficent agen- 
cies of our civilization — the pulpit and the school. 

He revolutionized the political and religious life of Israel. He was the last 
of the judges, the first of the prophets, the founder of the monarchy. He was 
the connecting link between the old regime and the new. He was reformer, 
organizer, epoch-maker of the first magnitude. And there is no career in all 



First North Carolina Reunion 35 

Scriptural history from which the men of the transitional epoch in North 
Carolina can learn so much, for they have the same kind of problems to solve, 
and the same kind of work to do. 

Before proceeding to make good these statements as to his work and influ- 
ence, some of which may seem to you at first sight extravagant, let us call to 
mind once more the familiar picture of the child and the man, and the familiar 
story of his antecedents, character, and training. 

1. And first of all, if we would know how such men are made, we should 
note that Samuel was the son of his mother. The most potent influence in the 
making of the man who made Israel, who first founded schools, and who first 
organized preaching, was that of a wise, gentle, just, and loving mother. It is 
not merely an alliterative epigram when we say, ' ' the hand that rocks the 
cradle rules the world". Our age has seen more clearly than any other that 
even the prenatal influence of a mother on her child is very great. It was not 
a mere accident or coincidence, as some one has pointed out, that Nero's 
mother was a murderess, or that Napoleon's mother was a woman of prodigious 
energy, or that Sir Walter Scott's mother was a great lover of poetry, or that 
Lord Byron 's mother was a proud woman — ill-tempered and violent, or that 
John Wesley's mother had executive ability enough to manage an empire, or 
that Washington 's mother was devout and pure and true, and of the loftiest 
character — the woman of whom be said: "All that I am I owe to my mother". 
There must be something besides mere chance in an array of facts of which 
these are but specimens. When to the prenatal influence is added the after 
influence of association, example, and instruction, moving along in the same 
direction through all the years of special susceptibility, nothing short of eter- 
nity can reveal how decisive has been the influence of a mother's life and 
personality upon the life and personality of her child. The development of the 
affections in children precedes that of the intellect. The mother governs 
through the affections, and, as she alone is brought into the closest relations 
with the children during the formative period of their lives, they learn to love 
her with a far different feeling from that which is inspired by the father. His 
is largely the rule of authority. Hers is the rule of love; and hers is infinitely 
stronger and more abiding. Hence the greatest need, not only of France, as 
Napoleon Bonaparte said, but of every nation, is mothers. Now, Hannah was a 
mother after God's own heart. She prayed for a son; and when a son was 
given her she recognized and assumed her responsibilities with a cheerful and 
whole-hearted devotion. She wore no crown like Queen Victoria; she led no 
army like Joan of Arc; she slew no tyrant like Charlotte Corday; she founded 
no school like Mary Baldwin; but she made the man, who made the monarchy, 
who planted the seeds of all constitutional government, of all opposition to 
tyranny, and of all organized schools and colleges, and who made the pulpit 
what it has ever since continued to be. 

If the men and women of our stock have been of any use to North Carolina 
or to other States in which they have lived, let us thank God today first of all 
for our North Carolina mothers. Astronomers tell us that the light of a star 
lingers lovingly around the world for centuries after the star itself has disap- 
peared from the firmament. However that may be, certain it is that the influ- 
ence of these blessed luminaries of the home abides with power upon their 
children and their children's children long after they have gone hence. Turn 
once more to that delightful little volume of Drumtochty stories, and read the 
sketf'h entitled "His Mother's Sermon", if you would see what "Ian Mac- 
laren", the most popular writer of that species of literature in the world, thinks 



36 First North Carolina Reunion 

of the postluinious influence of a mother upon her son. A man le;irns his politi- 
cal and other opinions from his father and other men, but he learns his religion 
from his mother, and, as Thomas Carlyle has said, a man's religion is the main 
fact about him, it is that which more than anything else makes him what he is. 

2. The circumstances attending Samuel's response to the first call of the 
mysterious voice show that he had also early developed the self-denial and self- 
control which are indispensable conditions of the highest success in life, 
especially in an age of intricate and irritating and explosive problems and of 
strenuous activity like ours. 

3. The most notable thing about Samuel 's training for his great career was 
his gradual growth, the continuousness and consequent harmony and strength 
of his development. The silent, inward, unconscious growth of Samuel is in 
strong contrast with the violence and profligacj' of the times, and, as Stanley 
points out, is the expression of a universal truth. The fact that in him the vari- 
ous parts of his life hung together, without any abrupt transition, explains the 
marvelous success of his work in binding together the broken links of two 
diverging epochs, and imparting to the age in which he lived the continuity 
which he had experienced in his own life. In proportion as our minds and 
hearts have grown up gradually and firmly, without any violent disturbance or 
wrench to one side or the other; in that proportion do we accomplish our best 
work for God. The steady, solid, lasting work of the world is done by the men 
who come from Christian homes, are trained by godly mothers, and develop 
through a pure childhood and youth to a strong, well-balanced, and fruitful 
manhood. My brethren, let us learn this lesson. In our work for North Carolina 
henceforth, let us continue as heretofore to magnify the work of the home. 
' ' And the child Samuel grew on and was in favor with God and man. ' ' If our 
State has been noted for any one type of character it is the balanced type. We 
are not men of extreme views. Other States may have more genius, but no State 
has more sense — good, hard, solid, everyday sense. "The maelstrom attracts 
more notice than the quiet fountain; a comet draws more attention than the 
steady star; but it is better to be the fountain than the maelstrom, and to be 
the star than the comet." Our people will not follow men of extreme views. 
They will not lay their course by sky-rockets, but the steadfast pole-star they 
will always follow. Symmetrical, solid, well-knit men, free from extravagances 
of doctrine and method, are the kind of men now needed by North Carolina. 

4. Samuel was a transitional man. It is this feature of his life which 
invests him with peculiar interest to the j'oung men of the South, who have 
grown up amid the changes in our Southern land which were wrought by the 
great revolution in the sixties; men who have had to be at once conservative 
and progressive, who combine profound reverence for the past with buoyant 
belief in the future; steadfast in their adherence to the principles which have 
given their people and country a glorious past, coupled with a clear recognition 
of the changed conditions brought about by the war and other causes, and the 
consequent necessity for some changes of method in the application of those 
principles. 

Samuel was not a founder of a new state of things like Moses, nor a cham- 
pion of the existing order of things like Elijah. He stood literally between the 
two; between the living and the dead, between the past and the future, between 
the old and the new, with that sympathy for each which at such a time affords 
the best hope of any permanent solution of the questions which torment it. 
See his attitude towards ritualism, though brought up on the ritual of the taber- 
nacle; and hear his definition of religion: "Behold to obey is better than 




Honorable Robert M. Douglas 

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina 



First North Carolina Reunion 37 

sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams". See his attitude towards the 
monarchy, though brought up under the old system of republic and judges. We 
need men today of equally open mind, broad outlook, and power of adaptation. 

There, then, we see what makes the transitional man; his mother's influ- 
ence, his early mastery of self, his gradual and symmetrical training, and his 
sympathy alike with the old and the new. 

Now what does the transitional man make? 

5. The greatest work of Samuel's life was the establishment of the 
prophetic order, and the organization of the prophetic schools. He not only 
reformed the civil and religious life of his people, but he took measures to make 
his work of restoration permanent as well as effective for the moment. He 
established schools which should furnish a regular succession of trained men to 
teach religion. At Eamah, at Bethel, at Gilgal, at Jericho, these were gathered 
in companies, and ' ' Samuel stood appointed over them ' '. 

This is the first mention, the first express sanction, not merely of regular 
arts of instruction and education, but of regular societies formed for that pur- 
pose — of schools, of colleges, of universities, of theological seminaries. Long 
before Plato had gathered his disciples round him in the olive grove, or Zeno 
in the portico, these institutions had grown up under Samuel in Judea. On this 
unique occasion, in this good State, with the whole atmosphere electrical with 
educational enthusiasm, it is impossible not to note with peculiar interest the 
rise of these, the first places of regular religious and general education. For one 
man to have inaugurated and methodized these three great innovations — consti- 
tutional government, national education, and a continuous succession of trained 
preachers — and to have given them stability and permanence, is an unique 
achievement, which confers upon its author everlasting renown, and, looking to 
the subsequent effects of these institutions, impels us to pronounce Samuel one 
of the supreme benefactors of the human race. 

My brethren of North Carolina, believe in the teaching method, and prac- 
tice it with all your might — in the home, in the school, and in the pulpit. 



The Reunion Sermon 



39 




Rev. A. C. DixDU, 1). I)., ..i' Boston, Mass. 
who Preached the Reunion Sermon 



The Reunion Sermon 



This was delivered by Rev. A. C. Dixon, D. D., Boston, Mass., at 
3.00 p. m., in the Grand Opera House, to the largest audience ever seen 
in that splendid auditorium. There was scarcely an inch of available 
standing space to be found, and hundreds were turned away by the 
ushers. 

Following is the full text of the sermon : 

The Vision of God and Man 

The heavens mere opened, and I saw visions qf God. — Eze- 
kiel 1:1. 

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and earned me out in 
the Spirit qf the Lord, and set me down in the midst of 
the valley which was full of hones. — Esekiel S7 : 1. 

Five times the heavens are said to have opened: Above Christ at his bap- 
tism, when he heard the approving words of t'^e Father; above Peter on the house- 
top, when he received his life-commission; above Stephen whilst he was being 
martyred, when he saw Christ at the right hand of God; above John on the Isle 
of Patmos, when he caught glimpses of the Celestial City; and here above 
Ezekiel in the land of captivity, by the river Chebar. 

This vision of the opening of the heavens was a preparation for the vision 
of dry bones. Until we get a glimpse of God, and begin to realize that divine 
forces respond to human, and that God is in his world, working a way worthy 
of himself, we are not ready for the work of transforming bones into men, 
making life come out of death. It was a preparation for the life-work of the 
prophet, and we see in this process the method by which the desert becomes a 
garden, the wilderness a city, and the colony with rude, lawless beginnings a 
state with civil and moral order. It is God coming down through the opening 
heavens and touching men — bringing them into life. Man is but a bone of his 
former self. Created in the image of God, he has so marred that image by his 
sin that compared with God he is only as the dry bone compared with the living 
body. And the question of all questions is, can these bones live? As we study 
this vision of God, we will find an answer to that question. Only God can bring 
them into life. 

First of all, we see the union of the human with the divine. In the peculiar 
creatures of this vision there are wings, and a hand under each wing. The 
wing everywhere in Scripture is the symbol of Deity. "The shadow of His 

F. N. C. R.—IV 41 



42 First North Carolina Reunion 

wings" is a familiar phrase. The hand is the symbol of the human, so that we 
have the union of God with man. And you notice there is much wing and little 
hand. It is the wing moving the hand, rather than the hand moving the wing. 
God controlling the human. God managing the affairs of men. What we need 
today to transform the desert into a garden, and to place life where there was 
death is to put God in the place of pre-eminence. The tendency at this time is 
to magnify man and forget God. We are apt to make the hand bigger than the 
wing, and make man occupy a place of honor and of dignity, whilst we forget 
that God is the ruler of all. But when we put God first, he can still create 
something out of nothing. If I had a blackboard here, I would write on it the 
figure 1. Then I would put before it a nought, and it is only one. I put two 
noughts, only one; three noughts, only one. But if I write the nought after, it 
is ten, and two noughts it is one hundred. If j-ou put the one first, you can 
make ten out of one nothing, one hundred out of two nothings, and one thousand 
out of three nothings. When you put God first, he can create something out 
of nothing. When you have learned to spell God, with those three letters you 
can spell all that is good. I really like the religion of the good, old, colored 
woman in Georgia, who went to school at sixty years of age, and she went up 
to the teacher and said, "Miss, I just wish you'd tell me how to spell Jesus 
first, because I think if I could spell Jesus first, then all the rest would come 
easy". I tell you that is good religion. It is the kind that puts God first. 
He is equal to the task of transforming the human, and making it into the image 
of the divine. 

And as you gaze at these peculiar creatures in the vision, you see a winged 
intelligence. There is the face of a man, and the human face is always the 
symbol of intelligence. Reason linked with God. Reason with a wing. When 
man links his intelligence with God, and puts his mind, his imagination, his 
taste, his judgment, his whole intellectual being under the direction of the 
Spirit, then it is that he has power to influence and mould character. And you 
will find that the men who elevate reason above revelation (and we have 
many of them in New England) are usually controlled by the slave of self. 
Reason is more often in shackles than in liberty. It is controlled by ignorance, 
prejudice, and passion. During the French Revolution, you remember the leaders 
said, "Down with the church; down with the Bible; up with reason", and 
instead of going to the University of Paris and selecting a broad-browed 
philosopher as the personification of Reason, they go to a theater and select 
a dissolute actress, put her on a throne, and ask the people to bow at her shrine; 
and the men of Brittany who worship reason are the men, as far as I have 
learned them, who are controlled by selfishness, passion, and lust. Reason is a 
good courtier of the King. It does the bidding of the master; but reason 
exalted above revelation is an ignorant and sometimes a cruel tyrant. What 
we need today is to let reason listen to the God of reason. Let reason do the 
bidding of the King. Let reason take the promises that God has given, and 
draw the conclusions of mercy and power. The man who is influenced only by 
cold, calculating reason is as near the devil incarnate as ever lived. The man 
who is never influenced by gratitude or friendship or love has been demonized, 
and the tendency of this modern time to exalt reason above the Bible is to 
demonize man, is to deprive him of the pure Scriptural instinct that links 
him with God, and should control his reason as the master of the servant of 
the Almight}'. Intelligence with a wing is the ideal Christian life. 

As you look more closely, you will notice a winged courage. There is the 
face of a lion, and the liou is everywhere a symbol of courage. Courage linked 



First North Carolina Reunion 43 

with God, conscious of God's presence and of God's power, and courage not only 
in the presence of danger but of difiiculty. It sometimes takes more courage 
to meet difficulty than danger. When God commissioned Joshua to go forth to 
battle, he said, "Be of good courage". When God commissioned Solomon to 
build the temple, he said, "Be of good courage", and it took as good courage 
for Solomon to face the difficulties of temple-building as for Joshua to march 
into the danger of battle. Many a man who could meet danger succumbs in 
the presence of difficulty, but God is equal to all difficulty. Difficulty does not 
exist in his vocabulary, and when you are linked with God you can be brave 
in the presence of difficulty as well as of danger. Our fathers were strong in 
building up this State, in establishing and maturing the church, in turning the 
desert into a garden, in making the wilderness a city, because they were brave 
not only in the presence of danger that would kill, but of difficulty that would 
daunt. The Cavaliers who first landed at Jamestown, and the Pilgrims who 
landed at Plymouth Eock had the courage that met danger from savage, 
difficulty from climate and failure of crop and internal dissension. When 
Chauncey Depew made the witty remark that when the Pilgrims came to this 
country, they landed first upon their knees and then upon the Aborigines, he 
struck the keynote of their success; for they were men that lived much upon 
their knees, and they could rise from their knees ready for the savage, or ready 
for the cold of the New England climate. Men that stand linked with God 
are ready for battle or ready for any difficulty that may meet them anj-where. 
As you gaze farther at this vision, you will notice a winged patience. There 
is the face of the ox, and the ox is always a symbol of patient toil. He bears 
the yoke. His mission is the unpoetic one of doing the dusty, humdrum 
drudgery in the deeds of everyday life. You know it takes more grit and 
grace just to walk every day and do its drudgery cheerfully and well than it 
does to mount upon wings as eagles, than it does to meet the great crises of life. 
Henry Stanley said he never feared the elephants in Africa. Why he could 
meet the elephants out openly and protect himself against them, but what he 
feared was the jiggers, little microscopic insects that got under the nails of his 
men and killed about half of them. For my part, I would rather meet a 
Bengal tiger, if I had a Eemington rifle, than to fight Jersey mosquitoes one 
night. Meeting a tiger appeals to the heroic in you, and all that is in you comes 
to the surface for battle; but meeting a mosquito does not appeal to anything 
except trepidation, fretfulness, and worry. If the truth were written on many 
a tombstone, the epitaph would read, "Died of jiggers and mosquito bites". 
Not killed by tigers, not overcome by great calamities, but destroyed by the 
little worries and friction of life. 

I come to you with the comfort that our God is a God not simply for crises 
and emergencies, but a God for the worries and the bothers and the humdrum 
and the drudgery. God can make the heart sing under the yoke as well as when 
it soars up above the mountain peak and cap. The great God of the universe is 
not too big to watch the sparrow as it falls, and label the hairs of our heads, 
and look after the least of his children, protecting them in danger and helping 
them to overcome difficulties. 

The most beautiful picture Murillo ever painted is a kitchen scene — a woman 
at the commonplace thing of cooking dinner. As you gaze at the face, you 
notice angel forms begin to appear. The angels are helping her cook dinner. 
As you gaze a little closer, you notice that the woman herself is an angel. 
What Murillo meant to teach was that cooking dinner is just as angelic as mov- 
ing in high society or sitting on a throne. As you read from this prophecy of 



44 First North Carolina Reunion 

Ezekiel you will find that when this vision occui'S again, as it docs once or twice, 
the face of the ox has dropped out, and the face of an angel takes its place, as if 
God would teach us that honest everyday toil marks the purely angelic nature, 
not the great crises, rising up to the hero, but doing in the spirit of song and 
of joy the drudgery of everyday life. The missionary on the foreign field, with 
pagan death all around him; the Christian worker on the frontier, standing 
among the bones of character dumped from great cities; the business man on 
the board of managers, the majority of whom are dead to righteousness; the 
loyal Christian woman, surrounded by the gilded death of worldly society; the 
honest politician, working with those whose one thought is the spoils of ofiice; 
the college student, in the atmosphere of academic indifference and scepticism; 
indeed, every man who, having been quickened by the life of God, seeks to 
express that life in the midst of death, and so express it as to carry life to 
others, needs the patience of the ox, with the wisdom, power, and sympathy of 
God. 

And then, as j'ou gaze, you see a winged aspiration. There is the face of 
an eagle, and the eagle is everywhere the symbol of aspiration. Aspiration 
linked with God. Aspiration with wings. Aspiration that soars. There is an 
aspiration common in this day that simply moves on swift wings. Its ambition 
is to keep up with the times, the great sin of which is to lag behind. We are 
going so fast, there is danger that we will get left, and we must keep up, and, 
like some birds, it flies low, and keeps parallel with the earth, until it drops 
down among the bones and dust. It never soars, it rises up towards God, and 
I tell j-ou there is a spirit that imitates it; contemplation upon God and rising 
up on wings of faith, hope, and life, may not bring in the best financial returns, 
but it pays if you have in view high thinking and high character-building. The 
spirit that soars because it is linked with God, that does not try simply to go 
fast, but feels the presence of God daily, and lives for him. The kind of spirit 
that is needed for the valley of dry bones is here suggested — courage that has 
God in it, the patience of the ox that is linked with the wisdom, power, and 
sympathy of God, the aspiration of the eagle that does not rise with its own 
wings, but with the wings of God. You need not go into the valley of bones 
if you go there simply to reason, for I tell you you can not argue a bone into 
life. There is not any possibility of reasoning a bone into life. There is 
nothing but the breath of God that can make a bone live, and you need to be 
patient. Those of you who have been set down, in the providence of God, in 
the midst of the valley which is full of bones, will need the patience of the ox, 
the wisdom and power and sympathy of the Holy Spirit. 

Every man who, quickened by the life of God, wants to express that life 
in the midst of death, will find that he needs the very power of God for courage, 
and the power of God for aspiration, and the power of God for patience; and 
in this vision we have the human in this courage, in this intelligence, in this 
patience, in this aspiration, linked with God for time and for eternity. 

But gaze again, and you will see a winged directness. These creatures 
moved in straight lines. In nature the curve, we are told, is the line of grace 
and beauty. In marching, a straight road is the line of grace and beauty. 
Diplomacy, which is the art of doing things with indirection, is not among the 
Christian graces. Bismarck, in speaking to a company of diplomats, said, 
"Young gentlemen, always tell the truth; for nobody will ever believe you". 
A Russian General said, "I would die for my Czar, and of course I would lie 
for him". That sort of diplomatic spirit is in politics up in New England. 
It used to be in North Carolina, and is in commerce and stock exchange, and 




Honorablt; F. M. Simmons, of North Carolina 

Senior I'nileJ States Senator 



First North Carolina Reunion 45 

sometimes in the retail store. The spirit of diplomacy, that by hook or crook 
we will get ahead of the other fellow, is not the spirit that is moved of God. 
Honesty, cheerfulness, paying your debts one hundred cents in the dollar, 
chastity, loyal to the truth in politics, whatever be the position, are the straight 
lines along which God propels his people. The Holy Spirit moves in straight 
lines, and every one that moves under his impulse at all moves under the 
impulse of honesty, cheerfulness, and virtue. 

Notice again, and you have a winged stability. You almost smile when 
you see that these creatures have the calf 's foot. The prophet said, ' ' He 
makes my feet like hinds' feet". The hind's foot and the calf's foot are just 
alike. They are made for standing on slippery and dangerous places. The hind 
can poise himself right over a precipice, and leap from boulder to boulder in 
perfect safety. Its foot is made with agility, with stability for movement, and 
at the same time firmness, perfect safety on the move. You remember the 
prayer, ' ' O Lord, establish our goings ' '. But our stayings are pretty well 
established. No doubt of that. We get in the ruts, and we love to stay there. 
But, "O, Lord, establish our goings". May we be on the move for good, full 
of the love of God, and yet be stable. If we are just active, that is all that is 
needed. If we can just get together, and do something in a very energetic 
way; why that is all that is needed. There has grown up in this country the 
spirit of a creedless creed. There are men up in Boston who believe that you 
ought not to believe. Their conviction is that you ought not to have any convic- 
tion. They are very much decided that nobody ought to be decided about any- 
thing. And you know they have gotten so broad until they are mighty narrow. 
They are out of patience with one who is not as liberal as they are. They believe 
in a creed without a backbone. They believe in indefinite liberality that does 
nothing. I was invited to New York to make an address to an infidel club on 
"Christ crucified". I thought it was a Methodist steward inviting me, as I 
saw him in a Methodist church where I preached, and I found it was the secre- 
tary of the greatest infidel club in the State. My first impression was not to 
go, but my deacons said, "You go, and we will pray for you". We had about 
seven hundred people present. One-fourth of them women, God help them, and 
the rest of them Jews and saloonkeepers, etc., and one of them a great Christian 
Scientist, rose and said, "We worship the everlasting It". Well, I could but 
reply, ' ' There is a principle as wide as the universe that you become like the 
object you worship, and you folks will keep on worshiping the everlasting It, 
until you become a lot of Its; all of you ' '. There will be no personality left, for 
as man advances, so is he; and a man can believe nothing until he becomes 
nothing. 

The calves have the foot of the hind that knows how to stand. You examine 
a man 's foot. It looks just as if it were made for backsliding. You have got 
to put shoes on it, and nails in the heels, to make it safe on slippery places, and 
that suggests that every man needs the support of divine grace. God himself 
has undertaken for us salvation, but when he is shod with the preparation of the 
gospel of peace, he has got something under his foot that can stand like the 
hind when it is slippery, and poise itself even upon dangerous places. You 
know there is such a thing as making progress by standing still, and you can 
never make rapid progress unless you know how to stand still. Some one asked 
a jockey, "Can that horse run fast?" "No, but he can stand." You have 
got to have stability of position. You must know how to keep on your feet in 
movement, and you can not do that unless you know how to keep on your feet 
standing still. There were two sloops several years ago off the coast of Con- 



46 First North Carolina Reunion 

necticut running a race. The wind was very strong, but the tide against them 
was stronger, and though they seemed to be going forward at a rapid rate, they 
were really drifting backward. One of the captains, looking ashore, took in the 
situation. So he cast anchor, and won the race, leaving the other boat half a 
mile in the rear. It is easy to drift with the tides of opposing currents; but 
those make best progress who have cast their anchors in eternal truth. 

What we need is the swiftness of God's wing, and the stability of God's 
power, movement by movement with conviction for truth, not a movement 
away from truth and God. but a movement with truth and God is the propelling 
power upwards. 

And that brings me to see in this strange vision a winged fellowship. All 
these wings are joined one to the other. They move together, and as they 
move together the hands move. In this practical age we are apt to think that 
we are simply to join hands. Syndication is the order of the day. Federation 
is the spirit of the times. Not an inward spiritual union, a union in God, but 
simply get together and join hands and do something, and that is all that is 
needed. If we are joined in a living union with God, we can easily work 
together, for then the same spirit of love inspires us. 

We are here on a beautiful mission — simply a reunion. We are here in 
memory of the old home ties. We have drifted far apart in diflferent States in 
this Union, and perhaps out of the United States, and yet we are one today in 
the unity of patriotic loyalty. We are here, not under the shadow of impulse, 
of any organization or form. We are here because we love North Carolina, 
and would like to do her honor. We are here, every one thinking about different 
things, with the same thing as the center of desire and purpose. I love the 
dear old State; not only because of my first birth, but more so because of my 
second. The old country meeting-house is in my mind as a picture today, when 
my father — blessings on his gray hairs today — preached the gospel of salvation 
through Jesus Christ, and I accepted him as my Savior from all sin. 

Those plain country people wept with me over sin, and then rejoiced with 
me over salvation; and when I meet them now I find that though we have 
drifted miles apart we are together in that joy and hope; and when a few 
months ago they gathered with me in front of the old meeting-house, and 
strewed flowers upon the grave of my mother, and wept with me tears of sorrow 
and grief, I declare to you I felt that I had something in common with them 
that life and death could never touch. Most of them have remained on their 
farms, and I have drifted over the world, but we are akin — we are just alike 
in the deep things of God. The wings are still joined. The hands move in 
response to the wings divine, and you know these deep things of God are so 
deep that little things like the knowledge of Latin and Greek and science and 
history do not affect them at all. It is solid in God. This conviction of sin, 
this yearning after the divine, this transformation of character that goes on 
under the impulse of the Spirit, is not dependent upon culture, upon civilization, 
upon refinement, nor ignorance. It is way down beneath these things. It is 
eternal truth. The truth of the hour is not to be despised — the truth that men 
talk on the streets, suggested by current events — but oh, friends, there is 
eternal truth, good for both worlds, and all time and eternity — the relation of 
man to God and God to man. Education does not affect it. Sad, sad the day 
when education becomes a substitute for regeneration. If there is one thing 
that has made me prouder of North Carolina than another, it is the great revival 
of common school education, led by our noble Governor — I say ours because J 
feel that I have a part in him myself. But I tell you, friends, if I had my way 



First North Carolina Reunion 47 

about it, I would write over the door of every school-house and every college 
and every university, "You must be born again". Whitewashing and galvar 
izing bones is not salvation. It takes the breath of God to make life, and when 
the new life has come into the soul, partaker of the divine nature, then there 
can be a betterment until we become like the perfection of Christianity in 
Jesus Christ ourselves. The mistake that education is all-sufficient has been 
made by eminent men. Bishop Colenso went to Africa, and selected a dozen 
bright African youths, and brought them to London, and gave them the bes'. 
education they would receive in the best schools, and after they had graduated 
from his school, he said, "Young gentlemen, you had better give your attention 
to Christianity". And not one of them was converted. They went back t-" 
their native wilds. One of them, the son of a chief, in less than a year got into 
battle with a rival tribe, killed his enemy, and while his body was warm cut 
out his heart and made a morsel of it, after all his English education. 

John Hans Egede went to Greenland, spent nearly thirty years trying to 
prepare the people for the gospel, but said they must know something about 
science and literature, and they must get an education to lift them up to the 
place where they could appreciate the religion of Jesus Christ, and he preached 
his last sermon on the text, "I have spent my life for nought", and went back 
a broken-hearted man. 

.John Beck went to Greenland, and the first thing he did was to preach to 
a crowd of savages, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
son", and he had not gotten through with his sermon until Kajarnak, the chief, 
arose and said, "Mister, say it again. Do you tell me there is a God that loves 
me? Say it over." And he said it over, and then Kajarnak came to his little 
house and was instructed in the way of life, and accepted Jesus, and became a 
flame of fire in his native land. And what every child, cultured or uncultured, 
needs is to know God in Jesus Christ; what the savage needs is to have .Jesus 
Christ preached to him. 

John G. Payton went to the New Hebrides to help bury the bones of the 
victims of a cannibal feast, and he preached Jesus, and when he came back on 
a visit to this country I heard him say that the very men that had engaged 
in that cannibal feast were at that time deacons in his church. 

John Geddley, you will find his monument on one of those hills, with an 
epitaph which reads like this: "Landed here in 1837 (if I mistake not), not a 
Christian on the island. Died 1870, not a pagan on the island." What had 
done it? Schools? There had been schools formed, and the people wore 
educated, but the pioneer of education is the gospel missionary. The foundation 
of education for time and eternity is faith in Jesus Christ. 

Thus we have in Jesus Christ the union of spirit that expresses itself in 
outward form. The form is in the expression of life, but as we are joined in 
loyal patriotism in North Carolina, we can be joined in true loyalty unto Jesus 
Christ. I want to bear testimony to another fact. As I come back to the State 
this time, all these things have come trooping up in my memory, the touch of 
an old farmer's hand made me a preacher. I studied for three years at Wake 
Forest with a view of law. My ambition was to be a lawyer. I thought there was 
an opportunity for usefulness as well as fame. My father appointed a meeting to 
begin at New Prospect church in Cleveland county, on Saturday, and being 
engaged in another meeting a few miles below that was so interesting he could 
not leave, sent word to me to go up there and adjourn that meeting at New 
Prospect. I rode a mule up there, not as pleasant as a palace car, but for five 
or six miles I went along thinking about my law future, and I came up in front 



48 First North Carolina Reunion 

of the old mocting-house. There was a crowd of farmers standing there talking. 
One of them, possibly the most illiterate among them, but one of the best that 
ever lived, came up and put his hand on my knee and said, "My boy, what's 
the matter f" "Father said he can not be here today, and you must postpone 
the meeting until some future time. ' ' He pressed my knee a little harder, and 
said, "Look here, son, why can't you come in and preach for us?" My heart 
went to my throat. Why, it had never dawned on me to do such a thing, and 
I trembled from head to foot. I was ashamed to be a coward, and he held on 
so lovinglj^ and so persistently that by and by I got off and went into the meet- 
ing-house, read a few verses of Scripture, don 't know what I commented, don 't 
think there was much, but there were some testimonies. I loved Jesus and had 
a little story to tell about it. I told it, and at the close there were some 
inquiries, and after that the old farmer came up and said, "Look here, my boy, 
how would you like to come back and preach for us tomorrowf" I said, "Why 
I have not a sermon in the world. 1 do not expect to preach." It scared me all 
over. He said, "That doesn't make any difference; you come back here tomor- 
row". And I was still ashamed, and promised that I would. I went back the 
next day, but there was a preacher there, and I didn't like that for I had my 
sermon— God had given it to me — and wanted to preach it. But I began a 
meeting there, and it went on over two weeks, and there were forty souls con- 
verted. I have never wanted to be a lawyer since. I have been preaching 
Jesus from that very day, and I would not go back to law for all the wealth of 
the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds put together. It was the touch of that old 
farmer's hand that did for me more than all the colleges on earth. Go to the 
university, get the highest training that the human mind is capable of, but I 
tell you, brother, there is something deeper than that, something in the old 
farmer's hand touch because it is the touch of God. God's wing joined with 
Immauity can make humanity powerful if it be as weak as weakness itself. 

Xow the prophet gives us a throne above these scenes and in relation to 
that throne the wheels. The wheel is the symbol of progress. Civilization 
goes forward on wheels. I came here on wheels. If you take the wheel out of 
civiliy.ation, you stop it dead still. And these wheels were so complicated, 
wheels within wheels, and so high that they were dreadful and all full of eyes. 
These wheels were under the impulse of the spiritual. They rested on the earth, 
and when the spirit moved they went up with the spirit, when the spirit went 
forward they went forward. They symbolize organization, the machinery of 
the church, the state, and the family, and ever\'thing that God can use for the 
advancement of his cause, and the teaching for us is that all this machinery 
should be under the spirit of God. The wheels, oh, so complicated! I tell you, 
brother, some have to take the complications because they try to run the wheels 
themselves. They get to the old windlass and turn their wheels. At our last 
annual meeting we had forty-two societies to make their annual report, enough 
to make the head whirl and just send one to the lunatic asylum if you try to 
run all these wheels, but it rests you just to realize that the wheels rest under 
God's spirit. If they do not, they should. All the machinery of God's 
church, in missions, in home work, in education, and everything el.'ie, is under 
the impulse of the divine spirit, and if they are not, they ought to be. They 
will never be successful until they are. These wheels were so great, they were 
dreadful and full of eyes, full of wisdom. The eye is the symbol of wisdom and 
thus safe to form great plans for God — plans that take in the evangeliza- 
tion of our State and country and the world, and plans such as we have for 
time and eternity formed for the advancement of God's kingdom. But notice 




Hoiun-ablf W. W . Kitchiii, of North Carolina 

Kepresentativf in Fifty - Eighth Congress 



First North Carolina Reunion 49 

this, that some men who form great wheels for themselves; they think in 
thousands and millions for their corporations — and I declare corporations have 
become such wheels they are all dreadful and full of eyes — but you put one of 
these men on a committee for evangelizing the city or State and just listen to 
him talk when he begins to consider how much money he ought to give for that 
purpose, and go to the meeting of the committee when it is discussed, and you 
will find these men who have been thinking in thousands and millions for their 
own corporations are now thinking in dimes and dollars. Instead of having a 
great wheel full of eyes, they set up their own pinwheels, men that have the 
spirit and wisdom to build immense corporations, some of them wicked, some of 
them on a basis of honesty. Oh, that God would help them to form plans for 
him as great as his thought, as far-reaching as his salvation, for the salvation 
of the world. 

Let me say finally that the throne had a rainbow about it, and Jesus Christ 
upon it. The man who sees Jesus Christ on the throne is an optimist. He sees 
the rainbow, and no matter how complicated the wheels or how dark the pros- 
pect, it is about him, for he has crowned Christ in his heart, and looks upon him 
as holding the scepter that is his to give hope for the future. Such a man has 
a right to hope. I tell you, brother, if you have not crowned Christ in your 
heart and in your life, you have no rainbow about the throne. You have come 
back to the old home in North Carolina without a home in heaven. You have 
come here to look at the place where the house was burned, as my old homestead 
was; you have come here to wander in the old groves, and you will have no hope 
of walking amid the trees on the bank of the river; you have come to the old 
homestead without a title to the new home. O, is that true, friend? Howard 
Payne, who wrote "Home, Sweet Home", never knew what it was to have a 
home of his own, and most of you doubtless know the history of that song; how 
it was that Payne was walking down the street in a great city in Europe one 
night, and he went across the street, stood there upon the steps for a moment, 
and noted how the light shone down through the window. He took out his 
handbook, and, inspired by the home scene through the window, wrote these 
words, "Home, Sweet Home". He went off, and they were published, and 
have gone over the world. Years afterward Howard Payne, walking down the 
same street one night, said, "I will go over and sit on the steps where I wrote 
my poetry that has made me famous". He went over and took a seat on the 
steps, and while he was sitting there some ladies came in the parlor, struck a 
light, opened the piano, and one of them sat down and began to play his own 
words and music, ' ' Home, Sweet Home ' '. He sat there with his face in his 
hands, and wept as he thought of the fact that he had made other homes happy, 
and had no home himself. Suppose the owner of that home had come to the 
door and said, "Mr. Payne ,this home is yours. You have written about it. 
Will you not come in?" Do you think he would have cursed the owner of that 
house? I plead here this evening with every man or woman who has a 
home to love and a home that you owe to Jesus Christ of Calvary, will you not 
let that home and its sacred ties lead you to a title to the home eternal, so that 
when you go back to the home outside of the State you can carry a tie that 
unites us for time and for eternity. Some people speak of homes breaking up; 
and, as the world puts it, our home is broken up. The children are scattered, 
the mother is glorified. The dear father — we tried to induce him, unwisely as 
I think now, to leave his little church and place and live with us — there in his 
loneliness, preaching and working and praying for his boys and girls. The 
home has been broken, you say; and yet, friends, you never lose your homes. 



50 First North Carolina Reunion 

The home is never destroyed. It goes with you wherever you go. It singa to 
you in your silence. It is a comforter to you in your silence. It is sweetness 
to you in the bitterness of night. At midnight you wake up, and it is a night- 
ingale in the dark. At midday you think, and it is the lark rising up to meet 
the sun. The home is never destroj-ed. It goes with us all over the world. A 
Christian home is eternal. Fire can not bum it. No power on earth can affect 
it. The Indians have a legend that when the frost comes and nips the flowers 
in their beautiful colors, these same colors are caught up in the rainbow on the 
cloud, so that the rainbow is the glorified flowers of the field. And oh, that is 
what the home is here, and there the flowers of hope and peace and joy are 
never lost. God catches them up in the rainbow about his throne. The home 
here is but the preface of the volume of the home beyond, if you have Jesus 
Christ as your Savior. 

May I say as a last message that our State is under God's guidance, God's 
protection? The State is ordained of God. You know I think what is ordained 
of God ought to do only what God wills. Once it was united with the free 
unbiblical alliance of the world. The State supported the church. Now, let us 
wipe off a blush, it is united with the saloon. The saloon helps the State, helps 
to support it; and what was ordained of God should not be supported by what 
was ordained of the devil. Let the divorce come — in the providence of God let 
the divorce come, and then the State will go forward upon the wheels of 
progress, propelled by the spirit who has given it its mission. 

God has said that marriages have only one cause for divorce, and the State 
that recognizes any other cause does not respond to the impulse of the Spirit. 
God has set apart one day in the seven as the holy type of worship and service, 
and I believe he would have the State recognize it as well as the church, even 
with the union of the church and State. The wheels of the family and the 
church and the State and humanity under God's impulse, going forward with 
Christ on the throne, and that throne on which he sits will by-and-by be pushed 
into sight with power and great glory, and then every crown will be his crown, 
and every scepter will be his scepter, and every throne his throne. I would 
like to call upon every individual and every family and every church and every 
State and every nation and every angel and every redeemed son in glory to say, 

"All hail the power of .lesus' name. 

Let angels prostrate fall; 
Bring forth the royal diadem 

And crown Him Lord of all. 

"Let every kindred, every tribe 

On this terrestrial ball, 
To him all majesty ascribe 

And crown Him Lord of all." 

When James Russell Lowell stood with a German friend on the top of the 
Alps, one of the highest peaks, he lifted his hat as he turned toward Italy and 
Rome, and said, "Glories of the past, I salute you". His German friend turned 
on his heel, and lifting his hat toward his fatherland, he said, "Glories of the 
future, I salute you ' '. 

The Apostle Paul, standing on the Alpine height of a Christian experience 
said, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the 
faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness". "Glories 
of God 's grace in the past, I salute you. ' ' And lifting his hat to the future. 



First North Carolina Reunion 



51 



"Glories, greater glories of the future, I salute you". And when the time 
comes that every heart shall be under the impulse of God's spirit, every heart 
in his church, every institution ordained of him, we can stand on the Alpine 
height of redeemed humanity, and say as individuals and as churches and as 
families and as organizations, ' ' Glory of God 's grace through Calvary, we salute 
you". Then we can turn our faces toward the vista of eternity, and salute the 
greater glory that shall come in the home eternal. 





Honorable J. M. Gudoer, of NorLli C'aniliiia 
Representative in Fifty-Eighth Congress 



The Reunion Exercises 



53 



Monday, 06tober Twelfth 



Never before in her life did the Gate City present a scene so gay, so 
beaiitiful, and so brilliant as that which greeted the eye on the morning 
of the twelfth. From private residences on the most obscure street to 
the business houses and public buildings on the most prominent square, 
from the various headquarters of counties, States, schools, colleges, 
and societies, and from every vehicle and car on alley, street, and 
avenue, there were unfurled the State and National flags, beautiful 
bunting, and countless designs and devices in decorations. The 
headquarters of the various counties of the State, as well as those of 
the schools and colleges, were elaborately decorated, and presented each 
a picture of striking beauty. Long before noon South Ehn had been 
transformed into a second Broadway by the moving mass of humanity 
attracted thither by the open-air concerts of the brass bands. Promptly 
at the appointed hour the great throng surged around the entrance to 
the Grand Opera House, where the exercises of the day were to be held. 
When Dr. Mclver, the chairman of the Board of Managers, rapped the 
great audience to order, the auditorium was packed to its utmost capac- 
ity, while thousands were unable to gain admission. Following the 
earnest invocation by Rev. Charles W. Byrd, D. D., came the opening 
announcement by President Mclver, who spoke as follows : 

On behalf of the Board of Managers I desire to thank every citizen of 
Greensboro and every North Carolinian, resident and non-resident, and all 
others who have contributed in any way to the success of this, the first North 
Carolina Reunion. 

The purposes of the Reunion are three: 

First. To furnish an opportunity for North Carolinians, at home and 
abroad, to renew and strengthen old friendships and to form new ones. 

Second. To secure for North Carolina from those who, in the fortunes of 
life, have left her borders and made their homes elsewhere, the inspiration and 
instruction that their varied experience and wider view make them capable of 
giving to us who are actively engaged in the work of upbuilding cur mother 
State. 

Third. To advertise to the country North Carolina's contribution to 
American citizenship, and to so organize her sons and daughters, resident and 

55 



56 First North Carolina Reunion 

non-resident, that whatever of good there is in the character, traditions, and 
history of the sturdy old commonwealth may be impressed upon our national 
life. 

Naturally, this first meeting has been regarded by many as an experiment, 
and the Board of Managers has met various difSeuIties. It was impossible, for 
instance, to secure from some sections such railroad rates as it will be easy to 
secure after one successful Reunion. Indeed, it was impossible to secure the 
liberal rates finally accorded to us in time to advertise them properly in the 
territory where they were given. 

Another great difficulty, which, in large measure, has been overcome, was 
the idea in the minds of many people, in the State and out of it, that this was 
to be a meeting of only local significance. 

The hardest task, perhaps, has been to arrange a program, sufficiently 
representative, and not too long, that would leave opportunity for personal 
intermingling and individual greetings. The formal program upon which we 
are about to enter includes the names of many who, by their service, have 
brought honor to their native State, their adopted States, and to the country. 

In order that we may hear from as many of these as possible, we have 
arranged for only one address — that of our Governor — to be as long as thirty 
minutes, and for no other address to be longer than twenty minutes. We have 
asked that the length of most of the other addresses shall be from five to seven 
minutes. We hope that some whose names do not appear upon the official pro- 
gram, and especially citizens of those commonwealths not represented on it, 
may, as spokesmen for their respective States, make impromptu five-minute 
speeches. 

It is the purpose of the management to print a Reunion volume, and if any 
speaker has not already prepared in manuscript what he is going to say, I take 
this opportunity of requesting him to write out before leaving Greensboro at 
least the substance of what he has said, or what he intended to say, or what 
he ought to have said. 

It now becomes my pleasant duty and honor to present to you to preside 
over the sessions of this Reunion, a North Carolinian who has been eminent in 
civic service to his State and country for nearly a half-century. The Board of 
Managers considers itself fortunate that his knightly presence is one of the 
many attractions of this great occasion. The soldier, statesman, and diplomat, 
Matthew Whitaker Ransom, will be our permanent presiding officer. 



The address of Honorable Matthew Whitaker Ransom on assuming 
the chair as Presiding Officer of the great Reunion : 

Ladies and Gentlemen — North Carolinians: 

I approach with a profound sense of its dignity and honor, the eminent 
position of presiding over this distinguished convention — this ever-to-be-remem- 
bered Reunion of the Sons and Daughters of North Carolina from all parts of 
the Union, with their fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, family kindred 
and friends, around the sacred altars of our beloved and honored mother State. 

It is impossible to express our emotions on beholding this unnumbered 
multitude; this countless throng of intelligent, happy, hopeful, expectant faces 
from every section of this boundless Republic; all animated with one sentiment 




H(»nitnil)le M . VV. Ransom 
Presiviing officer of the Reunion 



First North Carolina Reunion 57 

of fervid interest and affection for the ' ' dear old home ' '. Here, right here, 
are united throbbing hearts, from all the divisions of our country, in one 
patriotic aspiration for renewed and continued brotherhood and association. 
One hope, one purpose — for the oblivion of every painful memory. It is an 
occasion for universal congratulation — not a cloud, not a shadow on the day — 
the whole horizon beams with promise and hope. It is a day of destiny; of 
power and patriotism. It is a day in history, of glorious life — a day without a 
discord. We can almost see the bow of peace with its covenants in the eternal 
skies. 

The first words that come to my lips, are ' ' All honor and gratitude to the 
noble and patriotic authors and promoters of this great, good deed"; this now 
hallowed consummation. Pardon me, Doctor Mclver — to you and your associates 
belongs the honor of originating, organizing, designing, and bringing to its 
present development, this magnificent undertaking. It is now a great reality. 
The State and the country will cherish and continue the benefaction with 
undying thankfulness to you and your fellow workers. This day will live as a 
monument to your wisdom, patriotism, and philanthropy; to your energy and 
high purpose. We are beginning to realize the magnitude of your achievement. 
You are this day planting an olive tree of perennial beauty, beneath whose 
shade future ages will find repose and happiness. Today, when I shook the 
hand of the venerable and venerated journalist from Ohio, in sight of the battle- 
field of Guilford Courthouse, I felt, indeed, that sectional troubles were buried 
and that we are one country and one people united forever. 

What memories! What histories, does this scene revive! We can almost 
behold the beautiful myth of tradition and history, and see the gallant, gifted, 
glorious Raleigh springing from his proud ship and planting the standard of 
England and the Cross on the shores of the New World near the Roanoke. We 
can almost hear the echoes of the great Atlantic beating its "alarms" on 
"deathly Hatteras". We can watch the first colonists on their frail but 
faithful vessels — with nothing but the love of liberty and the love of God 
alive in their hearts. We see colony after colony lost, and nothing left but the 
dismal romance of a tragedy. Finally, a settlement is established, the first 
permanent beginning of a free civilized government in the Western Hemisphere, 
destined soon to become the greatest, grandest, best, the sun has shone on. 
The forest is subdued — the savage is overcome — a chain of settlements from 
Plymouth Rock to Georgia follows. 

Agriculture, Commerce, Trade, the Arts succeed; the New World flourishes; 
the Mother Country menaces her liberties. Resistance, united resistance is 
made. Mecklenburg — glorious, immortal Mecklenburg — on the twentieth day 
of May, 1775, lights on the streets of devoted Charlotte the first fire of Ameri- 
can Independence. North Carolina consecrates herself to liberty and free 
government. A free State is organized at Halifax, "heroic Halifax". Her 
constitution declares for a university of learning, and for education of the 
people. The Battle of Moore's Creek is won. The victory of King's Mountain 
strikes the British with dismay. Cornwallis ' ' staggers back ' ' from Guilford 
Courthouse, wounded, crippled, sick, to finally surrender at Yorktown. The 
sword of Washington is everywhere triumphant, glorious — but greatest and 
best when his own great hand resigns it to the laws of his country. A united 
free government is founded by the States and people, and North Carolina after 
deliberation adopts her Constitution, and demands admission to the Union. 
Washington, the Father of his Country, then President of the United States of 
America, hails her coming into the Union, and pronounces her the "Important 

jF. n. c. r.— v 



58 First North Carolina Reunion 

State of North Carolina ' '. History says of ber that she has always defied and 
destroyed oppression; that tyranny lies dead at her feet; that she has never 
worn the yoke of power; that her people may rightfully be called "The Children 
of Liberty". No stain of fraud, cruelty, persecution, or shame darkens her 
fair name; but her whole life is the unsullied record of a brave, honest, upright 
people, devoted to liberty, law, order, and to God. My countrymen — for one 
moment let us contemplate a few, a very few, of the thousand names who have 
honored, adorned, blessed her history. 

The Bevolution records no brighter or truer names than those of Caswell, 
Davie, Sumner, Nash, Davidson, Ashe, Cleveland, McDowell, Moore, Waddell. 
Time forbids us to name but few, very few, of those to whom we owe our free- 
dom and our homes. A more faithful, noble, illustrious, modest line of patriots, 
heroes, martyrs, can not be found, than our beloved State presents in our 
Revolutionary Histoiy. Their ashes sleep in deathless memory and gratitude 
among the deliverers and benefactors of their country and mankind. 

Among the heroes of the Revolution is the name of Nathaniel Macon — 
born in the county of "Bute" (now the counties of Warren and Franklin). 
History says "there were no Tories in Bute". The Federal Government was 
barely established when he appears in Congress as a representative from North 
Carolina. He remained in the House and Senate for thirty-seven years. Three 
times Speaker of the House, and twice President of the Senate. His history 
is known to the world. If the Senate stands for a thousand years, he will 
continue to stand as its model figure of honesty, and devotion to the people's 
rights. For two generations of men he was a landmark and lighthouse to the 
people. No Roman vestal ever watched the sacred fires on her altars with 
more vigilance and courage than Macon watched and guarded the purity of the 
Constitution and the equal liberties of the people. He spoke the wisest words 
of an American statesman and prophet when he declared that "the President 
should have none but honest men around. I repeat the President should have 
none but honest men near him. ' ' No greater truth can be spoken. 

Then comes the able, learned, eloquent Gaston, the proved superior of 
Henry Clay in parliamentary debate. Next Badger, the Master of Law; 
"Webster's Superior and Story's Equal"; to whom the Senate of the United 
States accorded the unmatched honor of unanimously declaring in solemn reso- 
lution recorded in its annals, its sincere regret at his leaving the Senate, and 
the admiration and respect of the Senators for his ability and courtesy. 

Time and the proprieties of this occasion, forbid me to pursue the subject. 
The record of North Carolina in Congress, with one broken link, has been one 
line of continuous ability, virtue, and patriotism, from the beginning to this 
hour, and constitutes in no small part the nation's fame and her own enduring 
inheritance of renown. As a Norm Carolinian, let me ask, what State in the 
Union — what country in the world, in any age of its history, can present a 
prouder and juster title to the admiration of mankind? Consider her contribu- 
tion to the character, wealth, influence, strength, intelligence, and virtue of 
the whole country. It is an old story, but always beautiful. For more than 
two thousand years it has commanded universal approbation. When Cornelia 
was asked by the Roman matrons to display her jewels, she proudly pointed 
to her two brave sons, the future Gracchi, and said "these are my jewels". 
North Carolina repeats the example, and improves on it. She shows her own 
brave sons and fair daughters, and she points to the thousand sons and daugh- 
ters whom she has bestowed on other States, and calls all of them the jewels 
of sister States and a common country. These jewels are countless. 



First North Carolina Eeunion 59 

Let me but touch a few of the tallest oaks in the grand forest. See Daniel 
Boone, monarch of the woods and rifle. Look at Andrew Jackson, the one 
conqueror without a defeat; the crowned hero of New Orleans, the greatest 
battle ever fought; the invincible president and statesman, who crushed all 
opposition under his feet. James K. Polk, the able, just, and wise President; 
chief actor in the annexation of Texas; President when the Mexican War was 
fought; and who extended our territory and power broadly to the Pacific. 
Thomas H. Benton, the Hercules of the Senate for thirty years. Wm. R. King, 
Vice-President with Pierce. The patriots of Mecklenburg carried tlieir unwasted 
fires to the planes of Illinois, and in Adlai Stevenson, Vice-President with 
Grover Cleveland, our country had no straighter or more erect statesman. 
General Joseph Hawley, Senator from Connecticut — New England has no 
more loved or honored man — he deserves it. Joe Cannon; honest Joe Cannon; 
universally respected; Speaker of the House of Representatives in Congress, 
standing for eighty millions of people. 

Turn your eyes in any direction and behold your distinguished country- 
men. Seven beloved Bishops of the churches at one time from North Carolina. 
See Dr. Hawkes, the most learned and eloquent divine of the age in which he 
lived. Bishop Greene, of Mississippi, the gentlest, mildest, tenderest, most 
lovable man you ever saw. His aim and desire seemed to be to walk in the 
footsteps and follow with humility the example of our Savior under the cross. 
Chastened by bitter afflictions he never paused in giving consolation and com- 
fort to others. I have often thought of the calm impression he must have had 
on the fiery, impulsive, impetuous, but manly temper of Mississippi. How he 
must have been beloved by this people, as he was when pastor of his church 
in North Carolina, and Professor of Rhetoric at the University. I then thought 
him the most accomplished gentleman in the land. I now know that he was. 
From a heart full of gratitude and love, I drop a flower and a tear to his 
memory. 

Examples crowd on our attention. Three Presidents of proud Universities 
and Colleges from three great States — Texas, Louisiana, Ohio. The Chairman 
of the Faculty, head of the University of Virginia, all from North Carolina. 
The General and Lieutenant-General of our Army in the South. Bragg and 
Polk, both sons of our great mother. 

In New York, today, two young North Carolinians have by merit, and very 
high merit, forged their way to the front and head of the New York bar. 
From the rising shores of the Pacific and the teeming cities on the Atlantic, 
young, bright sons of our State are "rising in the ascendant", and planting 
their colors on the very battlements of victory. In the great center of the 
world's finance and commerce, we have seen the captains of industry, from 
plain, honest, modest North Carolina, with unconquerable genius and enter- 
prise, push their lines of trade to remote Asia, to far-off Africa, to the distant 
shores of South America, and on the very Exchange in Liverpool and London, 
meet, defy, and baffle the proud princes of English finance and trade. 

Nor can we forget the old patriot from Iowa, Judge James Grant; the 
eminent lawyer, whose nephew and adopted son, bearing his name, having been 
a boy soldier in the Southern Army, was then the popular and exemplary 
Governor of Colorado, returns himself to North Carolina, and by his Li'n-e 
donation, secured the endowment to the University of the Chair — Great Chair 
of History, now so ably filled by Dr. Battle. 

Nor must we forget General Thomas .Jefferson Green, who helped to lay 
the foundation of three States in the Union — Florida, Texas, and California; 



60 First North Carolina Reunion 

then returned to North Carolina to give her his legacy of deepest affection in 
his son, the chivalrous and venerable Colonel Wharton J. Green; the devoted 
representative of the Cape Fear District in Congress, respected and esteemed 
all over the South for his manliness and independence; the bosom friend of 
Jefferson Davis. 

I wish that I could preserve in imperishable caskets the lives of the noble 
sons of North Carolina, who have achieved fame and fortune in other States. 
It would be a priceless legacy and monument to the State, but would take a 
lifetime to perform the work. 

But a year ago, we witnessed the Daughters of Salem Female College on 
the Centennial Anniversary of that time-honored institution, returning to lay 
their offerings and their homage at the feet of their beloved mother. I saw 
that grand, beautiful array. It was a spectacle worthy the contemplation of 
statesmen, philosophers, heroes, and divines. Noble, worthy. Christian women, 
educated, intelligent, pure, coming from happy homes, crowned with virtues, 
bearing with them the trophies of dutiful, good lives; the world made better 
and brighter Ijy their lovely deeds, with grateful memories of their sacred 
debt to their Alma Mater. I saw them in the great hall of the Academy. I 
saw them joining the teachers and the students in singing the holy hymn of 
the school, and when the chorus arose like a great wave in all the dignity of 
music, and ascended to the height of the great ceiling, and resounded in echoes 
of pathos as deep as the human soul over the vast audience, I felt as if in a 
better world. The majesty of women, with the power and charm of music 
was before me, and I could but think what must be the iniluence of an army 
of educated, moral, patriotic Christian women upon society and the world! 
How infinite, how sweet, how good! I thought of how much these noble and 
cherished daughters of Salem had done for reforms, for improvement, for 
homes, for grace, refinement, and human advancement and betterment all over 
the land. Their influence has been like the serene light and glory of the stars 
dispelling the shadows and darkness of night from the heavens. May I illus- 
trate the truth of which I have spoken? 

My countrymen, it is my duty, sacred to truth, to history, and to our whole 
country, to remind you of the conduct of North Carolina, our mother State, 
in that memorable war of the States. It is a history without a thorn. Far 
from reviving bitterness and cruel animosity, its exalted influence is to compose 
strife, to bury differences, to reconcile a people, and to strengthen fraternal 
union. There is nothing, literally nothing, in the history of North Carolina 
to give one pain to the people of any part of the country. It is as clear as a 
sunbeam. Not a shame on the record. Not one sinister line on her bright 
page. It is as direct as a ray of sunshine from the skies. She sent to the field 
one hundred and twenty-five thousand men, one-fifth of the Southern Army. 
The world knows its history by heart. In indomitable courage, for invincible 
fortitude, for heroic sacrifice, it has never been surpassed. For magnanimity 
in triumph, dignity in defeat, serene equanimity in surrender, it is without a 
parallel. It left its animosity with the ragged fragments of banners and arms 
on the field of Appomattox. It buried all hostilities in the beloved graves of 
its glorious battlefields. It returned to its home in peace with all mankind. 
Its heart did not retain a resentment, a malice, or a revenge. It was too full 
of sorrow, too full of honor for hatred. Its part was too great, too brave, too 
noble, to cherish a discord. The guns had been stacked, and its duty was 
peace. It had met its fate, and there was no stain on its sword. It would not 
perpetuate fire and blood. It would cultivate the arts of peace, of patriotism. 




Honorable Jolin H. Small, of North Carolina 
Representative in Fifty-Eighth Congress 



First North Carolina Reunion 61 

The war was ended. The sword had settled the quarrel, and forever. North 
Carolinians returned to their wasted homes, to rebuild, to cultivate, to 
improve them, to revive her industries, to preserve her honor, to raise patriots 
and Christians to take their places; to preserve liberty and do their whole 
duty to their country and to God. They went to work, and today we behold 
the result in restored prosperity, in secured liberty, in increasing happiness, 
in sacred love to country, and in the national hope of all the enjoyment of 
citizens in a common brotherhood. 

Three years ago, a war broke out between this country and Spain. With 
the first call of troops, North Carolina was at the front. The great State sent 
her sons to the army, and the first victim of the war was the brave, beautiful, 
heroic Worth Bagley. In the flower of manhood, with the blessings of his 
beloved mother on his brow, he gave his young promising life to his country 
on the deck of the Winslow in Cardenas Bay. The young hero fell a noble 
sacrifice to his country, and poured out his lifeblood for the honor of the 
Union, and died with its flag in his hand. Beloved North Carolinian! 

The tears of his countrymen were still flowing when the wires brought the 
sad news that Captain Wm. Shipp, of North Carolina, the pride, the hope of 
his house and State, had fallen, in the front line of the charge at Santiago, 
bravely doing his duty. 

North Carolina wept over her gallant, devoted sons; she had proudly given 
them to the Union, and their blood had been hallowed in its defense. May it 
forever cement its bonds, and remain the eternal sacrament of love and peace 
of all the States. Let fanaticism hide its hideous head before the encircling, 
glorious spectacle of renewed Union. 

Think of the brave, heroic, bright, young Bacheler deliberately dying for 
his duty in the burning air of the Philippines! 

My countrymen, it is a great thing to know that North Carolinians are 
always to be found in the front line of danger and duty. 

North Carolinians who live out of the State, you can now understand how 
happy we are to see and have you here with us. It gives us real, rational joy. 
It is with deep, sincere affection and confidence that we receive you with open 
doors and open arms. You see there is nothing in the history of your great 
mother which can bring a blush to your cheeks. We are proud of her, we are 
proud of you; and it is with our whole souls that we welcome — thrice welcome — 
you all to our homes and our hearts. What a joy, what a glory, what a bless- 
ing, to know that no son of North Carolina, wherever his lot has been east, has 
been known to forget to love and honor his mother; and she ever responds 
with her whole heart to that affection! 

I come now to perform the high duty which has been assigned to me. I 
undertake it with very great pleasure and unqualified pride. It is eminently 
appropriate that the gentleman who has been chosen should address you. 
The Committee could not have selected a fitter speaker. He wishes to see 
every acre of our soil blooming with harvests and animated with workshop.s. 
He is a true, genuine, thorough North Carolinian; born, educated, and living 
here; a representative of our character and sentiments, of our habits and cus- 
toms; one of our people. He is able, learned, and wise. There is nothing false 
in his nature. He is affectionate, devoted, grateful. He loves his country, his 
friends, his home. He never forgets there is a God who rules the world with 
justice and mercy. He is endowed with the destiny to do good and to make 
happy. He is gifted with eloquence to vindicate the truth which he loves. 
He is inspired with the courage to defend tlie right to which he is devoted. 



62 First North Carolina Reunion 

He is blessed witli all the qualities and fafiilties which constitute a Christian 
statesman. He is the fearless defender of popular education, because he knows 
that intelligence is the support of liberty. He is the manly exemplar of public 
and private morality, because he knows that virtue is the shield, health, and 
ornament of a free people. He loves labor, because he has learned that work, 
labor, is the foundation and necessity, the first law of human happiness and 
prosperitj'. He approves all public improvements, because he desires the 
improvement, progress, and elevation of the State, and wishes all the resources 
developed as a field for the energy of her people, and an opportunity for their 
genius, talent, and efforts. He is confronted by the dark problems of the age, 
and has determined to confront them with intelligence, justice, and benevolence; 
to exhaust all rightful means and ways to save the colored man from degrada- 
tion and utter worthlessness, and to raise him to usefulness and comfort ; but 
never, never to put in peril the solid foundation of white society, and the 
organic and cardinal principles — the lights and life of white free government. 
He loves the people — can not do enough for them; is always trying to do some- 
thing more. He is sincere, faithful, diligent. His simplicity, without arro- 
gance or pretensions, without vanity or deceit, without pride or ostentation, 
is the charm and e.xcellence of his life. He prefers the plain, simple home of 
Nathaniel Macon — the home of purity, of industry, of frugality, of Christian 
life — to the palace of a prince. He abhors luxury; he knows it is the deathbed 
of liberty and virtue. He can never forget that liberty perished in the palace 
of the Cfesars; and the vestal fires and the virgins themselves were lost and 
obliterated in the splendor of Imperial Rome. His heart, life, and soul are 
devoted, dedicated to North Carolina; but his heart is large enough and mind 
great enough to comprehend in its grasp the whole Union — from ocean to 
ocean — from the Arctic circle to the equator. He is the worthy countryman of 
Washington, Franklin, Adams; of Webster, Clay, Calhoun; fit successor to 
Morehead, Graham, and Vance. He wishes the country to love North Carolina, 
and North Carolina to love the country; and he rejoices with patriotic eyes to 
behold the star of North Carolina, unerased and unobscured, blazing on the 
star-spangled banner of sister States and a perpetual constitutional Union. His 
daily prayer is that all discords between the people of the United States may 
perish from the earth; and our prayer is that the laurel wreath may continue 
to crown his brow, and that his last hours may be cheered by the benedictions 
and blessings of his grateful countrymen. 

I present to you the Honorable Charles B. Aycock, Governor of North 
Carolina — your brother countryman.* 



* Honorable Matthew Whitaker Ransom; Born, lK2t! ; graduated from University of North 
Carolina, 1847; Attorney-General, 18.52-1855; Legislature, 1S69-1860 ; Peace Commissioner, 1861; 
Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel, Brigadier-General, and Major-Geueral, 18fil-1865 ; Lawyer and 
planter. 18t)5-lS72 ; United States Senator, 1872-18n5 ; Embassador to Mexico, 18il5-18()8 ; Planter, 
1898-1S04 ; Died eighth day of October, 19CM, at his home in Halifax County, N. C. The Reunion 
Address of Oener.al Ransom will be noted and read with more than ordinary interest because of 
the fact that it was his last public utterance. Its noble thoughts and patriotic sentiments were 
not less characteristic than the last private utterance which fell from the lips of this great Caro- 
linian. The Silent Messenger touched him in the absence of his loving and lovable wife, who 
had not returned from her summer home at Blowing Rock, N. C. His last words to the two 
devoted sous, who were with him at the sudden and peaceful end, were : "Do right, boys ; God 
bless your mother ". —Editor 



Address of Welcome on Behalf of the State 

By Governor Charles B. Aycock 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 

The Committee in charge of this celebration have honored me with the 
high duty of extending to you a welcome to your old home. If I could but find 
fitting words in which to set before you the breadth and depth of the gladness 
which stirs the heart of North Carolina today the duty would be transformed 
for me into the highest pleasure. We are glad to have you with us once more. 
You come to us, not as younger sons who have wasted your portions in riotous 
living, but as sons who left us with our blessing to seek the favors of fortune 
elsewhere, and having won your places in other States have come home at last 
to renew your acquaintance with old friends, and rejoice again amid the scenes 
of your youth. We shall, therefore, kill no fatted calves for you, no robes will 
be brought out, and no rings placed upon your fingers. You are at home again 
to share with us all the things which we have. The North Carolina look is in 
your eye; her speech is on your lips; her ideals live in your hearts. We rejoice 
in your presence; take delight in your prosperity; praise you for the things 
which you have done, and hope the utmost of your future. We wish you to feel 
that this is now again your State. We would awaken the memories of your 
early youth, and stir afresh the old-time affection. And this State of your 
nativity is worthy of your love. Her history is such as to justify your pride 
in her. Her achievements compare with those of any other State, and make 
her sons, wherever they be, proud to be known as North Carolinians. You can 
sing with us: 

"Carolina, Carolina, Heaven's blessings attend her; 
While we live we will cherish, protect, and defend her. 
Though scorners may sneer at, and witlings defame her. 
Our hearts swell with gladness whenever we name her." 

She was the first of the colonies to be settled, and although that settlement 
was not successful, it is a source of gratification that it was made under the 
patronage of the soldier, navigator, scholar, statesman, and martyr, Sir Walter 
Raleigh. On her soil the first white child born of English parentage came to 
bless the western world. Here liberty had its birth, and here it rejoices in its 
fullest beauty. North Carolina was settled by men who found the liberty of 
other colonies and States short of their desires. English, Virginians, French, 
New Englanders, Swiss, Germans, Huguenots, Scotch, Irish, of whatever nation- 
ality they might be, they sought this land in order that they might found a 
State which should be a fit home for "the freest of the free". "They were 
imbued with a passion for liberty", says Bancroft; and in their earliest days 



64 First North Carolina Reunion 

they secured for themselves and transmitted to us both "liberty of conscience 
and of conduct ". " With absolute freedom of conseieuee, benevolent reason 
was the simple rule of their conduct." "They were tender and open", gentle 
to the weak, and fierce only against tyranny. They were led to the choice of 
their residence from the hatred of restraint, and ' ' lost themselves in the woods 
in search of independence". "Are there any who doubt man's capacity for 
self-government?" says Bancroft; "Let them study the history of North 
Carolina. Its inhabitants were restless and turbulent in their imperfect sub- 
mission to a government imposed on them from abroad. The administration of 
the eolonj' was firm, humane, and tranquil, when they were left to take care of 
themselves. Any government but one of their own institution was oppressive." 
Living far removed from contact with the government which sought to rule 
them, freed from the blandishments of power, "disciplined in frugality, and 
patient of toil", it is no wonder that our North Carolina ancestors resisted to 
the utmost the tyranny of provincial and colonial rule. They were in constant 
warfare with their Governors, and repeatedly turned them out of the province. 
When the struggle with Great Britain came, North Carolina was in the front. 

Let me briefly give you two short pages of history. The first shall be 
devoted to Massachusetts, and is taken from Bancroft. "On the sixteenth day 
of December, 1773, the men of Boston assembled in the Old South Church. 
They remained in session until after dark. The church in which they met was 
dimly lighted. At quarter before six, Koteh appeared and satisfied the people 
by relating that the Governor had refused him a pass, because his ship was not 
properly cleared. As soon as he had finished his report, Samuel Adams rose 
and gave the word, 'This meeting can do nothing more to save the country'. 
On the instant a shout was heard on the porch. The war-whoop resounded. A 
body of men, forty or fifty in number, disguised as Indians, passed by the door, 
repaired to Griffin 's wharf, posted guards to prevent the intrusion of spies, took 
possession of the three tea ships, and in about three hours all the tea was 
emptied into the bay." This Ls the account of the great Boston Tea Party. 
It is world-famous. Daniel Webster, in his reply to Hayne, thinking of this 
great transaction among others, says, "I shall pronounce no eulogiuni on 
Massachusetts. She needs none. There she stands; behold her, and judge for 
yourselves." 

Now let us look at the other page, taken from a speech of Honorable George 
Davis. "On the sixth day of January, 1766, the sloop of war Diligence arrived 
in the Cape Fear, bringing the stamps. She floats gaily up the river, with sails 
all set and the cross of St. George flaunting apeak. Her cannon frown upon 
the rebellious little town of Brunswick as she yaws to her anchor. In his 
palace at Wilmington sits the royal Governor of the State, whose proclamation 
had just been issued, announcing the arrival of the stamps, and directing all 
persons authorized to distribute them to apply to her commander. As the 
sloop rounds to her anchor, there stand upon the shore Colonel John Ashe and 
Colonel Hugh Waddell, with two companies of friends and gallant yeomen at 
their backs. By threats of violence, they intimidate the commander of the 
sloop, and he promises not to land the stamps. They seize the vessel's boat, 
and hoisting a mast and flag, mount it upon a cart, and march in triumph to 
Wilmington. Upon their arrival the town is illuminated. Next day, with 
Colonel Ashe at their head, the people go in crowds to the Governor's house, 
and demand of him James Houston, the stamp master. Upon refusal to deliver 
him up, forthwith they set about to burn the house above his head. Terrified, 
the Governor at length complies, and Houston is conducted to the market house 




HoiKH-aMe ]■'. Y. Webb, of North Carolina 
Representativf in Fifty- Kiiihlh Congress 



First North Carolina Reunion 65 

where, in the presence of the asembled people, he is made to take a solemn oath 
never to execute the duties of his office." "I shall pronounce no eulogium " 
on North Carolina. "She needs none. There she stands; behold her, and judge 
for yourselves. ' ' Mark you, ' ' this was more than ten years before the Declara- 
tion of Independence; more than nine years before the Battle of Lexington, 
and nearly eight before the Boston Tea Party ' '. You will not fail to remember 
that it was on the twelfth day of April, 1776, that the Provincial Congress, in 
session at Halifax, instructed her delegates to the Continental Congress to 
concur with the other Colonies in a Declaration of Independence. This was 
more than a month before action was taken by Virginia, the home of Washing- 
ton and Jefferson, the zeal of whose people had been inflamed by the words ' ' of 
living fire that leapt from the impassioned lips of Henry". With these facts 
of authentic history, known and admitted of all men, it should occasion no 
surprise anywhere to hear that it was this State, which on the twentieth of 
May, 1775, at Charlotte, in the County of Mecklenburg, issued the first Declara- 
tion of Independence. Men may doubt that the patriots of Mecklenburg used 
the very words which have been handed down to us, but certain it is that 
Governor Martin, whose seat of government at that time, for reasons of safety, 
was aboard a ship in the Cape Fear, knew that they had severed the bands 
which bound them to Great Britain, for in a proclamation which he issued in 
August, 1775, he used these words: "I have also seen a most infamous publica- 
tion in the Cape Fear Mercury, importing to be resolves of a set of people 
styling themselves a Committee for the County of Mecklenburg, most traitor- 
ously declaring the entire dissolution of the laws, government, and constitution 
of this country, and setting up a system of rule and regulation repugnant to 
the laws, and subversive of His Majesty's government". 

It can occasion no surprise then when we are told by Mr. Bancroft that 
"the first voice for dissolving all connection with Great Britain came, not from 
the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, or the planters of Vir- 
ginia, but from the Scotch Presbyterians of North Carolina". 

It was another great day for liberty when the patriots of this State, on the 
twenty-seventh of February, 1776, gained the signal victory at Moore's Creek 
over the Tories who were seeking to unite their forces with those of Sir Henry 
Clinton. The result of that early victory for American arms broke the back- 
bone of Toryism, and gave to the patriots a zeal and confidence which stood 
them in stead in the darkest hours of the war for independence. It was your 
ancestors again who, in conjunction with their neighbors, won the great victory 
at King's Mountain. It was your ancestors who, in this very county, fought 
the great fight of Guilford Courthouse, and, while suffering a defeat, so crippled 
Cornwallis that he was compelled to yield his sword to Washington at York- 
town. When she had won her independence, North Carolina set such store by 
it that she declined to join the American Union until the sovereignty of the 
State and the liberty of the individual had been provided for by the proposal of 
the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States. But, once 
in the Union, this State loved it. The government was one of our own formation, 
and our people have ever been willing to yield obedience to the laws of their 
own enactment. Even when the people thought the Constitution had been 
violated, and their rights infringed, their love for the Union was so great that 
with singular unanimity they determined to remain in it, and secure, if possible, 
under the stars and stripes that protection to which they felt themselves 
entitled. But when the other Southern States went out of the Union, and we 
were brought face to face with the necessity of taking sides, then our people 



66 First North Carolina Reunion 

in convention assembled, without a single dissenting vote, went out of the 
Union, and sought at every cost to secure again that independence which our 
fathers had won. Late in going out, this State offered the first life on the altar 
of the Southern Confederacy. Having made up her mind to fight for independ- 
ence, she sent to the front more soldiers than there were voters within her 
borders. She lost more men in killed and wounded than any other Southern 
State; charged farthest at Gettysburg; laid down the greatest number of guns 
at Appomattox, and quit the fight with as deep regret as any of her sisters. I 
care not on which side one fought in that great contest; the achievements of 
North Carolina soldiers were too great to excite bitterness in any breast that 
loves heroic sacrifice and daring deeds. Her men won for humanity a still 
higher place for stubborn courage than had theretofore been gained. They 
went into the fight reluctantly, because of their deep love for the Union which 
their fathers had cemented with their blood. They went to the front well 
clothed, well fed, in high spirits, certain of success. They left at the end in 
tatters and rags, footsore and hungry, but their tears watered the ground where 
the greatest leader of soldiers, the highest type of Christian manhood, the 
purest and truest and the best of men. General Robert E. Lee, surrendered his 
sword. They came back to the State weaiy, worn, and sorrowful. They found 
the population depleted. Their farms had gone to ruin, their fences were down, 
their ditches were filled, their stock were slaughtered, in too many instances 
their houses were burned. But they did not sit down in the desolation of their 
despair. With a courage worthy of the great men who fought during the Revo- 
lution, they turned their faces to the morning, put their trust in God, and reso- 
lutely determined to build again their homes and do honor to their mother for 
whom they had suffered so much. And right well have they wrought. Todaj' 
our fields abound with harvest. From the mountains to the seashore there is 
abundance. There is not, from Hatteras to Murphy, from Virginia to South 
Carolina, a man, woman, or child who is hungry today. North Carolina and 
South Carolina manufacture sixty per cent, of all the cotton manufactured in 
the South, and of this sixty per cent, this State claims over half. Within this 
county the forty furniture factories, giving employment to thousands of skilled 
laborers, sell their furniture in Grand Rapids, and take tribute to their superior 
workmanship from every State in the Union. The census shows that we more 
than doubled our investments in manufactures in the last decade. We 'grow 
more cotton on less acreage than ever before, while our tobacco crop in value 
exceeds that of any State in the Union. Our vegetable gardens have grown into 
fields, and we feed the crowding multitudes of the Eastern cities. In every 
department of human activity your brothers here are forging to the front. We 
stand in the morning, with our faces to the light, and gladly hear the command 
that "we go forward". 

I have thought it not inappropriate to tell you these things on your return 
to your old home, for it is the right of one who has gone out from underneath 
the shade of the family tree to hear when he comes back what the folks at 
home have been doing. Above all, it is your right to know what we are. 
Whether we are sustaining the ideals of the past; what sort of structure we 
are rearing upon the foundation laid by your ancestors. In your travels .you 
may have run across "the scorners who scoff at and the witlings who defame" 
this State. You may have heard that she is ignorant and provincial, but I have 
the pleasure to inform you what your affection already knows, that there can 
be found nowhere within her borders a man known out of his township ignorant 
enough to join with the fool in saying "There is no God". There is no man 



First North Carolina Reunion 67 

amongst us whose hand is so untrained that it does not instinctively seek his 
hat in the presence of a woman. There is no ear so untaught that it does not 
hear the cry of pity; and no heart so untutored that it does not beat in sympathy 
with the weak and the distressed. Illiterate we have been; but ignorant, never. 
Books we have not known; but of men we have learned, and of God we have 
sought to find out. "A gentle people and open", frank and courteous, passion- 
ate when aroused, and dangerous in conflict; capable of sacrifice, among warriors 
the first — praised by me as warriors only because of the high courage manifested 
there, giving promise of the wonderful achievements which lie before us in 
peace. These are your people; they are my people. I am proud of their history; 
proud of their character; and glad to introduce you to them again. Your 
brethren all wish you to stay among us to the utmost limit of your time, to see 
us and know us as we are. If you find our material condition better than it 
was when you left us, we claim no praise for it. If we have done well, it is 
because we were taught aright by those who went before us, taught at their 
expense; and credit belongs to them alone. We think we hold on to the truths 
which our fathers taught us. We believe that we still maintain a passion for 
liberty; that we love independence, and set more store by honor than by 
wealth, and that we seek wealth only in order that the kind promptings of our 
hearts may find a better way in which to express themselves; that our deeds 
may keep pace with our wishes, and that the earth may grow better by what 
we do. In log cabin, in frame house, in modern mansion, each and all of you 
will find a welcome. The latchstring hangs outside the door — but not for you. 
The latchstring is for the stranger only; the door stands open for you. 

To the representatives of those cities whose North Carolina population is 
large enough to justify the organization of North Carolina Societies, I am 
directed to express the appreciation of my people for the manifestation of your 
continued affection which has brought you together in your distant homes 
under the name of the dear old State. It is delightful to us to be thus remem- 
bered by you. It inspires us to our best efforts, to maintain that affection 
which is so beautifully expressed in your act. It deters us from doing anything 
to bring dishonor ujjon that fair name in whose honor you associate. It has 
been my pleasure once since I have been Governor of this State to be the guest 
of a North Carolina Society in a distant city. It was to me a great happiness. 
I rejoiced in their prosperity. I delighted in their manifest joy whenever the 
old mother State was mentioned. They tried to sing for me The Old North 
State, but they broke down before finishing the first stanza. Gentlemen, you 
can not sing the songs of Zion in strange lands. The music of The Old North 
State is for home. Like our scuppernong grape, it is racy of the soil, and can 
not be brought to perfection elsewhere. 

Again I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for coming among us. I greet 
you in the name of the whole people. I extend to you all the liberties of the 
State, and invoke that pious benediction of Tiny Tim, "God bless us everyone". 




Colonel James i\ Mort-lu-ail 
One of Ihe I^eading Members of the N-mIIi Carolina Bar 



Address of Welcome on Behalf of the City 
of Greensboro 

By Colonel James T. Morehead 



At the invitation of all the people of our common mother, extended by 
their representatives in the General Assembly, you have left your homes, here 
to meet again under her sunny skies, and you have just listened to her hearty 
welcome expressed by her Chief Executive. 

I have the honor to welcome you, specially in behalf of the people of his- 
toric Guilford and her capital city, and to assure you that we yield to none in 
genuine, heartfelt pleasure in greeting Carolina's "Scattered-abroad". 

I hope I may be pardoned for repeating what has been said by others, that 
it was a happy suggestion that this location was the most appropriate selection 
for this first Reunion. 

As this city, then a village, was the gateway through which thousands of 
emigrants, who in the last two decades of the first half of the last century 
sorrowfully passed, emigrating to the then-new states and territories, their 
caravans of white-covered wagons freighted with their household goods and 
their household gods lining its unimproved streets; so now it is the Gate City 
through which the great majority of those who from time to time return to 
visit the scenes of their early childhood and youth pass to almost every section 
of the State. Within forty miles, and little north-east of the center of the 
State; almost equidistant from the blue mountains, from whose valleys and 
recesses poured the patriot bands to destroy Ferguson at King's Mountain, and 
the birthplace of Virginia Dare, washed by the Atlantic; from her southern 
border, where Andrew Jackson first saw the light amidst the muttering of the 
storm which was soon to break the power of Britain in America, and her 
northern border, the birthplace of Nathaniel Macon, the great commoner, and 
friend and adviser of Jefferson; in the heart of that part of the State largely 
settled by the Scotch-Irish race, one dogma of whose religion was "Resistance 
to tyrants is the will of God", and who "educated, elevated, and dominated" 
every people among whom their lot was cast; the central county of that section 
which first met in armed resistance legalized oppression, at Alamance; the 
scene of the labors of Caldwell, one among the greatest of those who led the 
people to maintain their rights, and of the labors of Caruthers, his successor, 
who first preserved in written form the traditions of those stirring times, the 
result of whose labor and learning is one of the important bases of the histories 
of the Commonwealth. Where you now sit — then in original forest — could be 
heard the guns fired at old Guilford Courthouse — the beginning of the end at 
Yorktown. 



70 First North Carolina Reunion 

These facts, I repeat, made the selection of Greensboro for the first Keunion 
peculiarly appropriate. 

History teaches us that wherever on the globe one of the Gallic race has 
settled, whatever his environment, his heart is ever turning to vine-clad France, 
and the ambition and hope of his life is "some day" to return again to look 
upon the scenes of his youth, and bask in her glorious sunlight; and equally 
true it is, as is now a common saying, that "Once a North Carolinian, always 
a North Carolinian". 

When the Cherokees were invited by the Federal Government to leave their 
mountain fastnesses, and move beyond the Father of Waters to a more fertile 
and better game-stocked hunting-ground prepared for them, one band in our 
mountains declined the offer, and "remain until this day". It is told of their 
Chief, Junaluski, that when he realized that the days of his pilgrimage were 
numbered, and he felt that the Great Spirit was beckoning him, he caused his 
tribesmen to lay him in his cabin door, that the last object upon which his eyes 
might rest should be the grand old mountain in whose shadow his childhood 
was passed, over the slopes of which he had chased the bear and the deer, and 
in whose sparkling water which flowed at its foot he had fished for his favorite 
trout in his youth and manhood. 

Though of a different race from us, he was a typical North Carolinian, in 
his love for the land of his nativity. 

Let me give you an illustration which came under my personal observation. 
Sometime in the Forties among the emigrants from North Carolina were some 
of our brethren of Scotch descent, who finally landed in Missouri. Thirty years 
afterwards, a young man from Guilford, seeking to better his fortune, "after 
Appomattox" made his home in Missouri, and married a daughter of one of our 
Scotchmen born to him in that State. In the course of time, the young man 
returned with his wife and one son, a child of six or eight years. I congratu- 
lated him on his return, and expressed a hope that he had "come to stay". 
' ' Not exactly ' ', he replied, ' ' my wife 's parents from her infancy had spoken 
so often and so lovingly of 'God's Country', and especially of the old home in 
Guilford, she longed to visit and sec for herself the glories of which she had 
heard. At a family council, it was decreed that the boy could never grow up 
to be the right sort of a man unless he drank out of the old spring at the old 
homestead." Accordingly, they had brought the boy to Guilford, carried him 
to the old homestead, and he had been nearly water-foundered at the spring, 
and he was going to return to Missouri before the week was out. 

You have heard and read how the slay-at-home Tarheels, by their grit and 
perseverance since "all was lost save honor", have rebuilt the waste places, 
have added manufacturing to agriculture, until today the Old North State is 
forging to the front abreast with her more fortunate sisters. This improvement 
is marked in all her counties — villages have become cities, her highways have 
been improved, and railways cross each other in all sections. She is rapidly 
progressing in education, and in fact in everything that goes to make a great, 
happy, and prosperous commonwealth, as you will realize when you visit your 
old homes in every part of the State. 

In this city and county you have, so to speak, an object lesson. 
At the date of emigration in such large numbers referred to, the site of 
High Point was not even cleared ground — today it is a city of between five 
and eight thousand inhabitants. It boasts of being the largest manufacturer 
of wooden products in the South, and second in the United States. Guilford 
College, today deservedly ranking among the best and most popular, the only 



First North Carolina Reunion 71 

Quaker College in the South, was but a simple boarding school. Oak Eidge 
Institute and Whitsett Institute, now entitled to be called colleges, had no 
existence. Greensboro had two colleges for women, whose combined patronage 
did not exceed one hundred students (one of which has since been destroyed 
by fire), and one classical institute for young men. Today within her corporate 
limits are located two of the State's finest colleges; one for women, with a 
patronage of nearly a thousand students; and the remaining one of the two 
first mentioned (saved to the cause of education by the loyal efforts of her 
alumna;, who now own it) has a patronage of more than double that of both at 
that time. She has five graded schools, which nearly two thousand chOdren 
attend, in the highest of which is taught the classics. There are in addition 
several graded schools in the county. 

At that date, this county could boast of but one cotton mill — small, but a 
pioneer. Today, cotton milling is prosperous in several sections of the county, 
anol in this city are four of the best-equipped mills in the State, and a fifth, in 
course of construction, is to be one of the largest in the South, if not in the 
whole country. These do not include a carpet factory and finishing mill. 

In addition to these, she is manufacturing clothing, furniture, and tobacco, 
everything made of wood, vehicles, material for buOding, etc.; and among 
her workers in iron are manufacturers of mill machinery, agricultural imple- 
ments, and in fact if old Tubal Cain could have joined in this Beunion we may 
well believe he would establish his headquarters and principal oiEce in this city. 

This city is not alone in this grand march of progress. I repeat, I select 
it as an object lesson. 

When you return to your homes, and recount to our absent kindred, who 
were prevented from meeting with us today, the glorious progress of the Old 
North State, I beg of you not to forget to speak of other things which you have 
not yet seen, but which you will see in your visits to your old homes before you 
return. Among these are some things ever pleasing to the eye and dear to the 
memory of every North Carolinian. You will see still left some of the old sedge 
fields, grown up in old field pines, through which you will travel on the good 
old country roads over red-washed gullies, filled here and there with ruts, roots, 
and stones, ' ' against the statute in such cases made and provided, and the peace 
of the State"; and your poetic souls will be excited by the sight of the good 
old-fashioned gristmill whose noisy and clanking machinery is moved by the 
ever-beloved over-shot waterwheel. And you may tell them that you saw, as 
in days of yore, the patrons of the mill sitting on the old benches and stones, a 
' ' committee of the whole on the State of the Union ' ', and heard them gravely 
discuss politics and religion, interspersed now and then with neighborhood news. 
And I venture to assert that when you recall these pictures of the old days the 
broader will be the smile, and the happier the chuckle, with which it will be 
received. And inspired by their recollections of the old times in the Old North 
State many a fireside, and perhaps public gathering, will be entertained by 
stories of camp-meeting, contests at the bar, merry meetings at the old log 
schoolhouse, and perhaps the glories of exciting combats of local pugilists on 
the court green and at the ' ' old muster fields ' '. 

Again I bid you THRICE WELCOME. 




Honorable Frank E. Shober, of New York 

Representative in Fifty - Eighth Conjjress 



The Responses 



Response of Honorable Francis E. Shober, of New York 

Representative of the North Carolina Society of New York 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies, anci Gentlemen: 

The privilege of speaking from this platform in the presence of so distin- 
guished a company, on an occasion like this, fills me with the deepest emotion. 

I know that no one here, from far or near, howsoever many years have 
passed since his departure, has come back to the Old North State, the land of his 
birth, without feeling that great throb and thrill all men experience when after 
weary years of exile they reach their Home at last. 

I am the more impressed with this sentiment, because it was in this particu- 
lar section of the State that the name I bear was well known, and in the gener- 
ations passed has been honored in no small degree. 

It is also a gratification to me to remember that my mother was almost, if 
not quite, a native North Carolinian, for she spent her youth not many miles 
from this point, and doubtless there are those present who in the old days at 
Chapel Hill can readily recall the name of May Wheat. So I am at home, 
rejoicing to be back again, proud of the fact that I am a native of this grand 
old State. 

It is a grand old State, with a grand past, and a grander future. 

In my boyhood days, the school books were wont to describe North Carolina 
as noted chiefly for the production of tar and turpentine. But it might much 
more truthfully be said that North Carolina is distinguished chiefly for her 
brilliant men, and, judging by those I see before me, her beautiful women. 

It is true, however, that tar and turpentine were largely produced in the 
State; and it was from this circumstance that the name Tarheel was given to 
uB. Applied originally as a term of reproach, I, and the other sons of North 
Carolina in New York, accept it proudly; for, if the indelible stain of tar is on 
our heel, yet an abiding love for the old North State is imbedded in our hearts, 
and an unfailing memory of her is impressed upon our minds. 

To leave her, even in all the hopefulness and confidence and carelessness of 
youth, caused a wrench never to be forgotten. 

To return to her brings a joy to which we look forward with gladness, of 
which we can never tire. 

This morning, speeding hither to take part in this Reunion, as I looked 
from the car window, and saw my country once again^ — the hills all bathed in 
rosy light, the vales still hid in shadow, the fields all gray spread out to meet 
tte woods just taking on their glorious autumnal colors — when, I say, I looked 

F.N.C.R.— VI 78 



74 First North Carolina Reunion 

on these things, an emotion most profound came over me. I was looking into 
the faces of friends of the long ago when I saw the hills and the valleys, the 
fields, and the woods. Over just such hills, and through just such woods, have 
I roamed in delight years ago. Why the very season recalled those days. It 
was about this time that the "rabbit hollows" were set. Just now is the time 
for hickory nuts and locusts and persimmons. Oh! the delights of these last. 
Locust and persimmon "pop" — no doubt an execrable drink, but delicious in 
those days. 

I love to think of those days, and of the friends I had. 

There was one in particular — a dear, dear friend. Next to my father, I 
thought he was the grandest man in the world. He was immensely tall, broad- 
shouldered, and of prodigious strength. His face was black, and his hair was 
kinky; but his heart was white, and his life was straight. 

Many a time and oft have I sat astride his mighty shoulders, clutching his 
woolly hair, to be borne in triumph hither and yon. His word was law to me, 
and his opinion supreme. 

He was at once my mentor, my companion, and my playmate. He taught 
me almost all that I know. He taught me how to fish. Down on the creek bank, 
where the shadows lay dank and dark and the water swirled beneath the bank, 
he taught me how to bait my hook, and — pardon the allusion — to spit upon the 
bait. I had never heard of Izaak Walton; but if he, himself, had appeared to 
discourse on this favorite theme, I would not have listened. Albert was there, 
and Albert knew. Oh! what did he not know? He was cunning with saw and 
plane. What toys did he not make for me? What wonderful "rabbit-hollows", 
which made me the envy of all my associates. And what a garden he could 
make — such potatoes and peas and beans as grew under his watchful care! And 
this man, so great in my estimation, was my dear friend. He taught me much, 
and I — I could only teach him to read. At night, after supper, when I had 
eaten of his corn pone sopped in molasses and bacon grease— a morsel to me 
more delicious than a delicacy from my father's table — then we began our 
lesson in the old blue-back spelling book. 

And there was Betty — Mammy Betty. She was also my friend. Many a 
time has she gathered me to her bosom, hushed my sobs, and wiped away my 
tears, "when dem mean ole white folks treat her baby bad". 

Oh! such friends they were — faithful, tried, and true; and they belonged 
to North Carolina. 

My friends, there were, and I believe there are many Alberts and many 
Bettys whom all of you know. I know that the recollections I have given, are 
recollections of many of you; I know that the feeling I have is the sentiment 
which animates you. Knowing this, therefore, I take the liberty on this occa- 
sion of saying with my distinguished colleague in Congress, Honorable W. E. 
Hearst, when speaking on the much-discussed Southern question, "Let the 
South alone — she will take care of her own". 

These are some of the recollections which come to me on the rare — alas, too 
rare — occasions when I come back to my native State, gaze upon her wooded 
hills and well-watered valleys, and breathe again the air in which I was nur- 
tured. 

And then I reflect with pride upon the history of our noble State, upon her 
achievements in the past; how easily she has worn her honors, and how sublimely 
she has borne defeat. And printed upon the records appear the names of her 
many sons who have attained distinction, great and small, in places far remote — 
in literature, in art, in the forum, on the bench, and at the seat of war. A 




Mr. W. F. Fiititll 

President of North Carolina Society of Philadelphia 



First North Cai'olina Reunion 75 

record of which any State might well be proud! And the Old North State, fond 
mother that she is, yearns over her absent ones, and in this Keunion would 
bring them all back home for a season, that she might bless them. 

'Twas a happy thought — this Reunion. May it be perpetuated, and year 
after year see this homecoming of North Carolina's sons from far and near, 
with honors great or small, in ever-increasing numbers, to do homage to our 
mother, and sing again in unison to Carolina. 

In New York, that busy mart where men run to and fro in the ceaseless 
pursuit of wealth, and where sentiment is perforce pushed into the background, 
lest it interfere in the strife, there are many North Carolinians. 

A goodly portion have met with honor and success well deserved. You 
know them all. I wish they might be here to take part in this inspiring move- 
ment. Another year will bring them, I am sure; for with them, as with all of 
us, the ties that bind them to Carolina are strong, and they draw them hither- 
ward persistently. 

Then may this good work of yearly Reunions go forward; that absent ones 
may be brought home again, and that all the world may be convinced of the 
greatness of our grand old State in the past, her still further greatness in the 
days to come. 

Her greatness in the past! Yes, as has been well said here today she was 
"first at Bethel; foremost at Gettysburg; last at Appomattox". 

She was great before that at King's Mountain, and at Guilford Court- 
house. There has never been a time when our beloved North Carolina was not 
great in war. 

But though great in war, blessed be God, she has shown and will show that 
she can be great also in peace. 



Response of Mr. William H. Futrell 

President of the North Carolina Society of Philadelphia 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

Dr. Winston, who has been sitting beside me, informed me a few minutes 
ago that the phrase "seven minutes" printed on the program is a joke. To 
say to a North Carolinian who has been away from this dear old Commonwealth 
for twenty years that he shall talk to his friends only seven minutes, must be 
an indication of how valuable time is regarded in the New South. In my day 
it would have been in order to talk an hour. But coming from "slow" Phil- 
adelphia, as I do, I can not be expected to keep pace with the times. I would 
remind the committee on arrangements, however, that if they do not wish to 
hear much speaking, it is a mistake to invite a Philadelphian to address you, 
unless he is told previously what is expected of him. For if I should attempt 
to define the difference between a North Carolina lawyer and a Philadelphia 
lawyer, I should say that the latter not only does not have so much tar on his 
heels and is, therefore, more vulnerable, but he is the more loquacious of the 
two. I base this definition upon the following historical fact. In the early 
days of Philadelphia, when the town was quite small, it is related that a citizen 
writing to William Penn reported: "The town is small, but flourishing", and 



76 First North Carolina Reunion 

after referring to the varied interests and eonditions of the people added: 
"the citizens are healthy and peaoable. I need not, therefore, refer to the 
physicians and lawyers; for we are thankful to be free from the abominable 
drugs of the one and the pestiferous loquacity of the other". If, therefore, I 
should give you some pestiferous loquacity, the blame must fall upon the 
shoulders of the Committee, who did not inform me until after my arrival that 
I was expected to make even a "seven-minutes' response". Having no set 
address, therefore, I shall spenk to you very informally but none the less sin- 
cerely. 

I am delighted to be with you on this occasion. My heart has been filled 
with joy as I have met so many of my old friends, and seen so many familiar 
faces. And I assure you, on behalf of the North Carolina Society of Philadel- 
phia, that each member would like to stand here and look you in the face, and 
tell you how much he loves the dear Old North State. They are living active 
useful lives— the kind of lives which North Carolinians live wherever they are 
located. A few days ago I attempted to give a luncheon to some of the North 
Carolina boys; but I found that they were too busy to eat. One said that he 
could come at two o'clock; another said that he could come at three; most of 
them said that they could not come at all; and I was able to get together only 
five fellows for that luncheon. I was reminded of the statement made by one 
of the Justices of the Supreme Court of New York, at the Southern Society 
dinner given in that city last winter. In speaking of the success which South- 
ern people achieve wherever they go, he said that he thought it was because 
they were able to accommodate themselves to circumstances, that they became 
identified with local interests, and that they endeavored to practice those 
Christian virtues and patriotic sentiments so thoroughly instilled into their 
minds in their Southern homes. What the future of the North Carolinians in 
Pennsylvania will be remains to be seen. But I think that we can do no better 
than emulate the lives of our distinguished and patriotic forefathers of this 
old commonwealth. 

Pennsylvania and North Carolina have so much in common that those of 
us who live in the former State feel that we are closely identified with you. 
Tt was only last week that there was a celebration in Philadelphia commemor- 
ating the two hundred and twentieth anniversaiy of the settlement of the 
Germans in what is now known as Gcrmantown. And it is a remarkable co-in- 
cidence that at about the same time of this settlement the Germans were also 
settling in North Carolina. Both Commonwealths had the English, the Scotch- 
Irish, and the Swiss. The religious sects — the Quakers, Moravians, Lutherans, 
Presbyterians, and others — were prominent in both States. And, however 
much these denominations differed in their interpretation of the Bible, all 
agreed that they could do without princes and nobles, but never without the 
church and schoolhouse. In fact, it is related, with reference to a Moravian 
settlement in North Carolina, that it was customary to build schoolhouses and 
churches before the homes of the colonists were finished. 

Tt is, therefore, pleasant to recall the similarity of the people, and the 
bond of fellowship existing between the two commonwealths. And as we 
compare the two States at the present time, we find that, in some respects. 
North Carolina e-xcels Pennsylvania. For instance, only eighteen per cent, of 
the population of Pennsylvania attend school; whereas in North Carolina it is 
twenty-two per cent. Tt is true that the school term is longer in Pennsylvania 
than it is in North Carolina; but I am much gratified to learn that since I left 
this State you have lengthened j'our school term more than fifty per cent. In 




Honorahlt' Spencer BUifkburu 
Representative -Elect in Fifty-Ninth Congress 



First North Carolina lieunion 11 

Pennsylvania, the value of her manufactured cotton goods at the present time 
is about twenty-five millions of dollars, while in North Carolina, it is about 
twenty-eight millions of dollars. In fact, I might give other illustrations; but 
I remember that no man has a right to give statistics when Dr. Mclver is 
present. He knows 80 much that I am reminded of the story which was told 
years ago concerning Judge Settle. How I wish the old North Carolina stories 
and folklore might be preserved! Will you pardon me if I relate this story f 
During the so-called Vance and Settle campaign in this State, two old colored 
men, Uncle Abe and Uncle Aleck, met at the country store at ' ' Bryant 's Cross 
Roads", and proceeded to discuss the political situation. Uncle Abe reminded 
Uncle Aleck that Judge Settle was a "mighty smart man"; that he knew more 
than any man in the State. Uncle Aleck, thereupon, compared him with the 
President of the United States, and also with Mr. Gladstone; but Uncle Abe 
declared that Judge Settle knew more than either of them. "Well", said Uncle 
Aleck, "I reckon he don't know mo' dan de Lawd". Uncle Abe was quiet for a 
few minutes, and then, as if struck by a sudden inspiration, said: "Dat am so; 
he don't know mo' dan de Lawd; but Judge Settle is mighty young yet". 

It has been twenty years since I left this good Old North State. The 
changes have been so numerous and so marvelous that it would be an imposition 
upon your hospitality and patience for me to attempt to enumerate them. The 
fact is, I feel that I am in a new North State. The names which General Eau- 
som mentioned a few minutes ago, and which we used to hear spoken so fre- 
quently, such as Jackson, Benton, Polk, Iredell, Graham, Johnson, Mangum, 
Macon, Gaston, Badger, and many others, have been replaced or supplemented 
by other and newer names. And then one sees the flourishing villages and 
towns which were almost unknown twenty years ago. This old town itself has 
been so changed that I scarcely know where I am. Instead of arriving at a 
railroad station overcrowded and illy ventilated, you have a large, modern, brick 
building. As I rode up your main street with Dr. Mclver — I call it Broadway — 
the old courthouse was almost the only building which was familiar to me; and 
I find that even that is being enlarged and remodeled. Twenty years ago your 
total expenditure for education was practicallj $375,000, or twenty-seven cents 
per capita. Today your total expenditure for education is more than $1,000,000, 
or sixty cents per capita. Twenty years ago you had two hundred and fifty 
thousand pupils in school; today you have approximately five hundred thousand 
— an increase of one hundred per cent., whereas the increase in population is 
thirty-seven per cent. 

These are great results. And when I reflect that you have accomplished 
all of them without US, I have an answer to Dr. Mclver 's question which he put 
to us at the meeting of the North Carolina Society in New York last winter, 
when he said: "Why don't you come home?" My answer is "you are getting 
along very well without us". You are doing a noble work, and I am thankful 
to feel that it has been done and is being done by the harmonious and collective 
energy and action of, not a few people, but of the people as a whole. 

It is related that when the reign of terror in France was over, and the 
advocates of law and order began to emerge from their hiding places, they were 
surprised to find how numerous they themselves were, and how collectively 
strong they might have been in combating the pre-existing anarchy. It took 
North Carolina a long time to find out how collectively strong she was, but 
when once her mind was made up she advanced with characteristic boldness and 
patriotic zeal. 



78 First North Carolina Reunion 

A new era has dawned. You have built a new North State upon the solid 
foundations of the old. This tremendous growth is followed by new responsi- 
bilities, and I feel sure that North Carolinians are able to meet them. And as 
you settle successfully the questions pertaining to the State, you are at the same 
time aiding in the adjustment of national difficulties. 

We are living in a remarkable age; and we are making history with an 
amazing rapidity. Our recently-acquired territory, our centralization of capi- 
tal, our internal dissensions in connection with labor and capital, are ques- 
tions which require serious consideration. And when we remember that 
public apathy is the root of corruption, it behooves each one of us to 
accept our small share of responsibility, and to inculcate those principles which 
stand for the highest ideals of American citizenship. The greatest empire this 
world ever knew, becoming intoxicated with success, lost its former ideals of 
citizenship, permitted bribery and corruption to flourish, until Rome, the empire 
itself, was sold at auction by the pretorian guards. 

Our country needs today, as never before, the guiding power and influence 
of the real Anglo-Saxon American citizen. He can be found in the South, and 
surely he ought to be found in North Carolina, the purest Anglo-Saxon State of 
the Union. 

Go on, then, with your good work; and in building the new upon the old 
see to it that you build correctly. You may 

"Ring out the old; ring in the new"; 

Provided you 
"Ring out the false; ring in the true". 

"Ring out the grief that saps the mind;" 

* # * * « 

"Ring in redress to all mankind." 

"Ring out the slowly-dying cause"; 
***** 

' ' Ring in sweeter manners, purer laws. ' ' 

"Ring out the darkness of the land"; 

***** 

"Ring in the Christ that is to be." 



Response of Mr. John Wilbur Jenkins, of Baltimore, Md. 

Mr. John Wilbur Jenkins i-epresented the North Carolina Society of 
Baltimore, and in response to the Governor's address of welcome said, 
in part : 

When President Cleveland and a distinguished party of Washington oflScials 
were shooting and fishing on the sounds and banks in Eastern Carolina, they 
were making sport of a little "banker" boy, who had known onl}' the schooling 
of his native sea and the blue sky. They were asking him questions about the 
ownership of various belongings around there, when a flock of wild ducks came 




Ml'. John Wilbur Jenkins 

of the Baltimore Sun 



First North Carolina Beunion 79 

flying over their heads. Seeking to puzzle him, Mr. Cleveland said, ' ' And whose 
ducks are those, my boy?" The little fellow dug his toes in the sand, looked 
up at the President, and replied, "Them ducks is they own ducks; they is". 

What I like most about North Carolinians is that they own themselves; and 
from the very foundation of the colony independence has been their most char- 
acteristic trait. I am glad that, slowly and gradually though it may have been, 
the people here have built up their own industry, and have made the State 
what it is. 

When the war ended, her soldiers, who had displayed little gold lace, but 
had worn proudly the powder-blackened faces and the wounds of the war that 
are the ' ' red badges of courage ' ', came back to the smoking embers of their 
homes, and with bare hands in ashes and in desolation began to build upon the 
ruins the structure of a new civilization. How well they have built it this great 
commonwealth of two million people attests. Where once was desolation, now 
we hear the whirring spindles and the shuttling looms. The red hillsides are 
covered with grain and fruit and snowy cotton. Sleepy little villages have 
grown into spreading cities, with crowded streets, imposing mansions, and the 
smoking chimneys of great industry. It is a tremendous thing to have wrought 
this in a generation, and to have wrought it in silence and alone. For North 
Carolina owns herself. Her cotton mills, her tobacco factories, her fertilizer 
plants, her furniture manufactories, her farms and houses are her own, built by 
her own citizens, in their own enterprise, with their own money. 

Representing the greatest of Southern cities on behalf of those sons who 
have gone abroad, I wish to pay a tribute to the great work of those who have 
stayed at home. The Land of Terrapin and Oysters gives the hearty hand of 
congratulation to the State of 'Possiini and Potatoes. 

This great Eeunion of Carolinians from all parts of the nation thrills the 
heart and brings tears to the eyes. For we are home again, back in our mother 's 
house, in the dear old fatherland. No matter how far we may wander, it is 
always "down home" to us. It is fitting that this Reunion is held in a city 
whose past is historic, whose present shows the remarkable enterprise of recent 
time, and whose people have their faces turned towards the future. 

On the battlefield of Guilford Courthouse, almost in the edge of this city, 
Marylanders stood shoulder to shoulder with North Carolinians in the bloody 
fight against Cornwallis and his British soldiers. They have been closely allied 
ever since that baptism of blood; and North Carolina has no reason to feel 
ashamed of the sons she has given to her sister State. 

Wherever he has gone, the North Carolinian is known for his frankness and 
his friendliness. Independent by heritage and tradition, carrying with him the 
sturdy virtues of his native State, he has been a great factor in many other 
commonwealths. This North Carolina spirit, "to be and not to seem", has been 
an important contribution to American character. 

But the State has been too modest to claim the credit it deserved. The 
organization of North Carolina Societies in New York, in Philadelphia, in 
Atlanta, Richmond, and Baltimore, has resulted in developing a more ardent 
State pride, and in binding the people of those cities closer to the place of their 
nativity. I believe that similar results would follow the organization of such 
societies in every large city and in every State in the Union, and I believe that 
the societies should be united in a federation that will link them together and 
unite their efforts for the good and glory of the old State. 

I propose, Mr. Chairman, that, in order to give permanency to the enthusi- 
asm of this great Reunion, a committee of thirty members be appointed to form- 



80 First North Carolina Reunion 

ulate a plan for the federation of these societies, and to stimulate their organi- 
zation in cities and States where they do not now exist. I know what such 
societies can do, from what our Baltimore Society has accomplished in a single 
year. It has bound together the North Carolinians of Baltimore in friendship 
and brotherly feeling; it has brought them to know each other, and to appreciate 
each other. Last July, on the battlefield of Gettysburg, we held a celebration, 
and gathered there, forty years after that bloody conflict, some of the most 
notable survivors and descendants of those who won undying fame in this great- 
est battle in our history. There, on the very spot where the Tarheels carried 
the Stars and Bars "farthest at Gettysburg", right at the angle where the 
Confederacy swept to its highest tide, looking over the field where Pettigrew 
with his North Carolinians came charging across in the face of the Federal guns, 
we sang "Carolina", and raised the chorus, "The Old North State Forever". 

I have never witnessed a more affecting scene than that when Colonel John 
E. Lane, commander of the matchless Twenty-sixth North Carolina Regiment, 
standing on the battlefield where he was terribly wounded in the charge, clasped 
hands with Mr. Charles McC'onnell, of the Michigan Iron Brigade, who fired the 
shot that came so near ending the Carolinian 's life. While the band played the 
"Star-Spangled Banner", and hundreds of Confederates and Yankees who had 
met in mortal combat on that field cheered and sang the song, the tears stream- 
ing down their cheeks, and hands clasps in brotherhood, I felt that once more 
we had a re-united country. 

North Carolina's part in that battle, one of the most glorious pages in our 
history, had never received proper recognition from the outside world. This 
celebration gave it the widest publicity all over the United States, and, I 
believe, for all time set it right in the eyes of the nation. That is only one of 
many things that a North Carolina Society can do. 

I believe that we from other States who have come to this Reunion have 
received a fresh baptism of patriotism, and will carry back with us an even 
deeper love and more ardent devotion to the great State that gave us birth. 



Response of President R. P. Pell, of South Carolina 

When some of us North Carolinians left our native State, we had the happy 
fortune to fall into the hands of our twin sister. This hospitable matron, though 
smaller in stature than our beloved mother, claims the sole right to the family 
name, "Carolina". We have not resented this assumption, but have preferred 
to put upon it the charitable construction that it is an act of exquisite courtesy, 
intended to leave upon us the impression that we are not foreigners, but her own 
sons and daughters. If a stranger, wandering into her bounds, reveals any 
peculiar virtues, these good people, instead of investigating his Statehood, 
quietly take it for granted that by reason of these very excellencies he must 
have been born a South Carolinian, and readily absorb him into their State-con- 
sciousness. This unique task seems indigenous to this clime, and the only ade- 
quate explanation a North Carolinian can offer for it is to suppose that the 
whole population is composed of Ransoms and Aldermans. Let me say that, just 
as we are not ashamed of the people from whom we went, so we are not ashamed 
of the people among whom our lot has been cast. Their revei'ential devotion to 
the memories of a noble ancestry, their loyalty to both persons and principles, 




I'lfsideiit K. I*. I'lll, of Converse CoUeji't', South Ciidliiia 



First North Carolina Reunion 81 

their philosophic insight into political problems, their lofty standard of social 
purity, their ever-watchful conservatism — all these command our admiration. 
But I am proud to declare that whatever respect and confidence we have now in 
our new home, are due to the moral and intellectual equipment we have received 
from the good Old North State. It was here, upon this blessed soil, that we 
learned to trust in the ultimate supremacy of true manhood, to exercise inde- 
pendence of thought and action, to cherish a fraternal feeling for all classes, to 
maintain fair-mindedness in discussion, to pay respect to constituted authority, 
and to keep the open mind and heart without which not even the partiality of 
our best friends could have rescued us from deserved obscurity. Happily, these 
characteristics of the two States are not mutually exclusive; but are comple- 
mentary; and are thoroughly appreciated by both. Let me give you an instance. 
Perhaps, if you could gauge the depths of Dr. Mclver's heart, you would find 
that pi-obably his highest ambition is to rank as one of the best expressions of 
the democratic spirit. Now South Carolina is the most aristocratic-democratic 
and democratic-aristocratic State in the Union. When Dr. Mclver came to 
South Carolina, at my invitation, to address us on the educational question, his 
slogan of "the people, the people, the people" made me quake as to its effect 
upon that staid audience. But he actually joked and argued them into believing 
that everything else in the world was absurd and unreasonable except his own 
speech, and to my astonishment his sallies wrung from his hearers roars of 
applause and characteristic North Carolina yells. 

Now, my brethren, when we left you our heart did not depart from you, nor 
did our eyes close upon you. With kindling pride we have watched your attack 
upon the momentous problems that have had to be confronted by all of our 
Southern States. Many a time have we longed to break loose for a moment 
from the bonds of our new citizenship, to resume our place in your ranks, and 
do our part in your warfare. But you have never needed our help, or that of 
any other man. Your campaign has been grounded, planned, and conducted 
upon the invincible platform (which may you never surrender), that the fullest 
opportunity must be given to every man to be and to do his best. When you 
have been temporarily defeated, you have not skulked to your homes in disgust, 
and repudiated the ballot; nor have you in bitterness of spirit encouraged rebel- 
lion against law and order; but have quietly planted your standard again and 
again upon your trust in the right-mindedness and right-heartedness of the 
people. No wonder you have been victorious, and the colony of Tarheels in 
South Carolina send you their congratulations, and bid you Godspeed! 

And, now, I have the inexpressible gratification of announcing that the 
memorable incident relative to the remark of the Governor of North Carolina to 
the Governor of South Carolina is coming to a close; for that "long time 
between drinks", under the beneficent effects of recent legislation, is slowly 
but surely drawing itself out into an eternal drought. 



Response of Honorable L. D. Tyson, of Tennessee 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

This is, indeed, a proud day for the sons and daughters, of Old North Caro- 
lina, who have wandered away from the fold, and have taken up their abode in 
distant lands. 



82 First North Carolina Reunion 

There is a touch of sadness, as well as joy, as wo return here today and look 
into the faces of those ■whom we have left — sadness because we feel that our lot 
has separated us, perhaps forever, from this land and this people whom we love; 
but joy when we feel that we are again amongst our kith and kin, and amidst 
the dear old scenes of our boyhood and girlhood. 
For — 

"Breathes there a man with soul so dead. 
Who never to himself hath said: 

This is my own, my native land; 
Whose heart within him ne'er hath burned. 
As homeward his footsteps he hath turned." 

My friends, I love this old State. I love its people; I love its memories and 
associations; I love its honesty and its candor; I love its true, old-time, and 
generous hospitality; I love its stately old pines and grand old oaks that are 
found on every hand; I love its mountains and its rivers, its balmy air, and its 
warm, life-giving sunshine. 

Aye! I love everything that is in this dear old State — from its towering 
mountains that kiss the very dome of heaven on the West, down to that grand 
old ocean that beats with eternal and sublime roar upon its sandy shores on the 
East. 

This day is one that I have long looked forward to in my imagination. 
Many a time in my dreams, when far away, have I seen myself invited back to 
my native land on an occasion such as this. Until I received an invitation to be 
present here today, it was a dream that I never expected to see realized. 

But, ladies and gentlemen, I wish to say that I have never been prouder of 
anything in my life than I have of the invitation to appear before you here 
today. I feel the full significance of this Reunion; and the only regret that I 
have is that I have not been able to win a rich wreath of laurels to bring back 
and to lay at the feet of the grand old mother State, so that she might lay her 
hand upon my head, and say, ' ' Well done, my son ' '. 

The people of North Carolina have much to be proud of. I have studied the 
history of all the States of this Union; and I say, without fear of disparaging 
any other, that in patriotism, in valor, in love of freedom, in enlightenment, in 
hospitality, and in indomitable determination to maintain the right as God has 
given her to see the right, she has few peers and no superiors. 

But, ladies and gentlemen; I come to you today from that fair land across 
the Great Smoky Mountains that was once a part of this State, and which is 
now called Tennessee. 

I come from a land that is as patriotic, as rich, as beautiful, as fertile, as 
sunny, as balmy, and as healthful as old Carolina. I come from a land of peace 
and plenty, verily flowing with milk and honey; a land where nature vies with 
man in producing everything that is beautiful and good; a land of fertile val- 
leys, of verdant hillsides, of lowing herds, of rolling vistas of bluegrass and of 
snowy fields of cotton; a l.ind that is bounded on the East by grand and lofty 
mountains that gradually fade away to the Westward boundary, where glides 
the great Father of Waters as he slowly winds his eternal burden to the sea. 

The first settlers of Tennessee were almost wholly from North Carolina. 
They were of the same stock as the old mother State. They had been bred and 
born here in old Carolina, with the loftiest ideas of freedom and independence; 
and they have proven themselves worthy of their ancestors in every walk and 
circumstance of life. 




HoMornble L. 1). Tyson, of Tennessee 

speaker of the House of Representatives 



First North Carolina Reunion 83 

The history of Tennessee is closely interwoven with the most glorious and 
the most stirring events of our great Republic. The early struggles of her set- 
tlers against the Indians is one long story of heroism and of valor. 

Though her population was a mere handful, with a courage and determina- 
tion that was sublime, her patriotic sons marched across the mountains in the 
darkest hour of the Eevolution, and in conjunction with a few gallant men from 
North Carolina and Virginia they sought out the British, and fought and won 
the decisive and important battle of King's Mountain, on the seventh day of 
October, 1780. This battle was suggested, planned, and largely led by Tennes- 
seeans. This decisive blow, coming as it did in the darkest hour of the Revolu- 
tion, was of untold benefit to the patriot cause, and perhaps the brightest jewel 
in the crown of Tennessee. 

This country can never do too much honor to the brave men who conceived 
and fought that memorable battle. 

Tennessee became a State in 1796. When her constitution was adopted, it 
was admitted by all that she possessed the most thoroughly democratic form of 
government of any State in the Union. 

Tennessee holds the old mother State in grateful remembrance for all the 
favors that she has lavished upon her daughter; but I think it will be admitted 
that in the last seventy-five j'ears the daughter has done great honor to the old 
mother, and has made a deep impress upon the history of our country. 

The State of North Carolina can not fail to feel proud of this fact, because 
a great deal of the best blood of Tennessee was contributed by North Carolina. 

She contributed to Tennessee the three young men who, as citizens of Ten- 
nessee, were to attain the highest position in the gift of the American people, 
and to become the Presidents of the United States, viz. : Andrew Jackson, James 
K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson. Every one of them great men — men who made 
their impress as statesmen on the history of the Republic. And as for old Hick- 
ory, by many considered the greatest soldier and statesman that this country 
has produced, he has so left his impress upon Tennessee and Tennesseans that 
his glory is a part of the glory of the State. 

From the year 1820 to the year 1850, the State of Tennessee produced more 
great men and commanded a greater influence in the nation than any other 
State. 

At the outbreak of the Mexican War, the Governor called for three thous- 
and volunteers, and thirty thousand responded. So many more volunteered than 
were needed by the Government, and there was so much rivalry as to who 
should be allowed to go, that it had to be decided by lot; and thus she won for 
herself the proud distinction of being called the Volunteer State. Her sons 
fought gallantly on every battlefield of that war, and added imperishable glory 
to the annals of our country. 

When the great civil war broke out in 1861, a vast number of the people of 
the State were opposed to secession; and while she contributed more than thirty 
thousand men to the Union Arm3', she nevertheless sent as many men to the 
Confederate Army as any other Southern State; and it is said had more men 
killed in battle than any other Southern State, with the single exception of 
North Carolina. 

The gallantr}' of her sons was shown on hundreds of battlefields in that 
great war. With the exception of Virginia, her soil was the principal battle- 
ground of the war; and her people suffered untold hardships. On her soil were 
fought some of the greatest battles of the war at Fort Donelson, Fort Henry, 
Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Franklin, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga; and 



84 First North Carolina Reunion 

Chiekamauga, the greatest battle of the West, was practically fought upon her 
soil, and largely by her own troops— to say nothing of hundreds of skirmishes 
and combats. There never was a time from the second year of the war until its 
close when Federal troops were not camped upon her soil. With the exception 
of Georgia and Virginia, she suffered more than any other Confederate State. 
General Joseph E. Johnston, the great Confederate Commander, said of Tennes- 
see that she was the "Shield of the Confederacy". 

But, thank God, those trying times are forever past; the tattered flags are 
forever furled; the rattling drum beats are forever silenced; the bugle notes 
that called those intrepid hearts to battle have forever faded away; and today 
we stand a re-united country. 

But the memories of those who fell are not dead — their deeds of heroism 
are a heritage to our children, and to our children's children, the memory of 
which we will not permit to pass away. 

' ' On fame 's eternal camping ground 
Their silent tents are spread; 
And glory guards, with solemn round, 
The bivouac of the dead. ' ' 

When the tocsin of war sounded in 1898, and this country was called upon 
to join in a war of humanity, to rescue the little island of Cuba from four hun- 
dred years of Spanish oppression and tyranny, the sons of Tennessee, with that 
patriotism which had always characterized them, again sprang to arms, and 
were ready again to sacrifice their lives on the altar of their re-united country. 

But, while Tennessee, throughout her history, has been renowned in war; 
she has been no less renowned in peace. 

Today only the welcome sounds of peace ,<ind the busy hum of progress are 
to be heard within her borders. 

We of Tennessee feel that she has a glorious past and a brilliant future. 

She is blessed with every natural gift that Providence in its most lavish 
mood eould bestow. 

Her material resources are greater than those of almost any State in the 
Union. She has vast forests of timber; her mountains are filled with minerals 
of every kind, l>'ing there in inexhaustible quantities awaitin.^ the magic touch 
of man to bring untold wealth to her people. If she were cut off from every 
other State by an impassable barrier, she has within her own boundaries every- 
thing that is necessary for the happiness of man and the upbuilding of a great 
State. It has been said by an eminent authority that there are not forty-three 
thousand square miles of contiguous territory anywhere else under the sun that 
contain as many natural resources as Tennessee. 

She is striving for all that is great and good in the arts of peace. 

Her soil and climate are as near perfection as nature can make them. Her 
people are amongst the most generous, the most enlightened, and the most pro- 
gressive to be found in the Republic. In every period of her history she has 
been found in the forefront of progress, of enlightenment, and of statesmanship. 

Time does not permit me to recount the names of her renowned orators, 
soldiers, and statesmen; but their names are engraved on the tablets of fame, 
and enshrined in the hearts of our countrymen. 

But, of all the treasures of Tennessee, there are none so rare as her grand 
and noble women, who have stood side by side with her sons in every hour of 
her history, and have inspired them to whatever of good and great they have 
accomplished. 




Mr. Feler M. Wilson, of VVashin»itoM, D. C. 

United States Senate 



First North Carolina Reunion 85 

Finally, there is not to be found upon the globe a country where man can 
enjoy life or pursue happiness or fortune with greater success than in the grand 
and beautiful old commonwealth of Tennessee. 

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, while I love my native State with all my 
heart, I will say to you, if you feel at any time that you wish to wander away 
from beautiful old Carolina, come to that land across the mountains, where you 
will receive a warm and sincere welcome from your own kith and kin, who have 
long since preceded you to that other garden spot of earth — fair old Tennessee. 



Response of Mr. Peter M. Wilson, of Washington, D. C. 

When Greensboro was still a town, there lived in it a choice spirit, the 
venerable Lyndon Swaini, who was not only a legislator and a very upright 
citizen, but an editor who wrote pure English, gentle humor, and kind words. 
In a letter to Hale 's Weekly, he described a visit to old Salem town, on the 
then-new railway. Its one passenger coach was divided by a partition that 
made the front end a second-class and the rear end a first-class compartment. 
On the return trip the numbers, but not the car, were reversed; and it was a 
perplexing thought to him, always, whether he was riding in the first-class end 
of a second-class car or the second-class end of a first-class car; and the only 
satisfaction he could ever get out of it was, going either way, he would land in 
Salem or Greensboro. 

So it is coming from beautiful Washington to beautiful Greensboro. Think 
of it! You can go to sleep in Greensboro, and wake up in Washington; and that 
is what every good politician dreams of, and hopes to do some night or day. 
But what is better, you can go to sleep in the most beautiful city of the world, 
the center of our great country, and wake up in Greensboro. And that is what 
every prodigal North Carolinian dreams about and hopes to do. 

You know the legend of the man who went to Heaven, and was amazed to 
find there a man bound with a golden cord to a graceful pine tree. "Is this the 
Heaven of the pagans, and is that Prometheus of the fable?" he asked, in fear 
and wonder. "No", said a cherub guide; "that is a man from North Carolina; 
and if loosed he would go straight back home". 

They are all tarred with the same stick. 

Washington, you must know, is proud of North Carolina's Representatives 
in Washington. They speak for themselves; and for all the rest of us, for that 
matter. They are all young men, in the very summer of life — serious, sober, 
industrious, and able. Their word is as good as their bond; and their bonds are 
above par. There is no scandal in their lives; and they walk upright in the 
light. So, as to those filling humbler positions — the scores of clerks in the great 
stone buildings of the State, War, Treasury, and Law Departments — they are 
worthy workers. Thinking of the gladness of this day, it is no doubt a long 
day for them; but they rejoice that it is given to their fellows to go back home 
even for a day; and it is what, 'way down in their hearts, they are longing to do. 

Does it not recur to us all that something more than social satisfaction 
ought to grow out of this Reunion of the Tarheels scattered abroad? Revisiting 
familiar scenes and grasping hospitable hands is joy enough for one day; but 
should not a monument be built to suggest it and recall it, and should not this 



86 First North Carolina Reunion 

monument be practical and powerful and progressive? Would not a fund for 
the education of the mothers of the State that are to be appeal more to the 
hearts of these absent ones than almost any other thing? It is a hard heai't that 
is not touched to a purpose when the claims of the mother thought stand before 
it; and North Carolinians do not harbor such hearts. 

The amount of money which working girls of foreign-born parents send 
back in small sums to those in the motherland is so great at festival seasons that 
special provision has to be made for it in the exchange. But little of this goes 
to bring away others; nearly all of it is for the betterment of those who are in 
the older homes, and for their happiness. Now, is it asking too much of every 
absent one to sond something of his earnings yearly to build up, support, and 
keep young and beautiful as the grateful heart that bids him do it a "Hall of 
the Absent", where 3'oung women can be taught those lessons that the mothers 
of the givers would have them taught. 

If the names of all North Carolinians not living in the blessed State can be 
enrolled, and this wish given form in their minds, surely this Eeunion will be 
memorable indeed. Why can not those master minds that have brought 
together this congregation of happy home-comers perpetuate its beginning, and 
the reason of its being, by appealing to these thoughts that must be in the minds 
of many, and give them a habitation and a purpose? 



Response of Rev. Dr. W. W. Moore 
Represeyitative of the North Carolina Society qf Richmond, Fa. 

There are more natives of North Carolina now living in Virginia than in 
any other State in the Union, except North Carolina itself. According to the 
last census there were 53,235 of them. If that is a correct estimate, and there 
is every reason to believe that the number is now larger rather than smaller 
than it was in 1900, it means that, besides the scores of us who have the delight- 
ful privilege of responding in person to the call of our venerated mother to 
gather again under the ancestral roof-tree, there are some fifty thousand other 
sons and daughters of hers within the bounds of the Old Dominion, who think 
no less tenderly and proudly than we of the good old State that gave us birth; 
whose hearts turn wistfully to Greensboro today; and whose memories echo the 
stately music of Judge Gaston's hymn: 

"Carolina! Carolina! Heaven's blessings attend her! 
While we live we will cherish, protect, and defend her; 
Though the scorner may sneer at and witlings defame her. 
Our hearts swell with gladness whenever we name her. ' ' 

For these fifty thousand Virginia-Carolinians or Carolina-Virginians, which- 
ever you may prefer to call them — and I do not believe that any better brand of 
either Carolinians or Virginians ever drew breath — for these fifty thousand 
brothers and sisters of ours whom North Carolina has loaned to Virginia, and 
who, though busy and happy in the State of their adoption, nevertheless turn 
longing and loving eyes toward the State of their birth, I wish to be spokesman 



First North Carolina Reunion 87 

in part this afternoon, and especially for that thrice-happy contingent whose 
good fortune it is to live in the famous and beautiful city by the James, which 
is the capital of that commonwealth, and which was and is and ever will be in 
history and memory the capital also of the short-lived but immortal Confed- 
eracy. 

There is no city in the world whose name thrills the hearts of all true Caro- 
linians with such tender and heroic memories. When the red wave of war rolled 
around her forty years ago, and the troops of all the confederated States vied 
with each other in the defense of their beleaguered capital, there were none 
whose blood flowed more freely in her behalf than that of the sons of North 
Carolina; and so to the sons of North Carolina in every succeeding generation 
the very soil of Eiehmond will be holy ground by reason of that baptism with 
North Carolina blood. In her peaceful cemeteries at Oakwood and Hollywood, 
hundreds of the heroes sleep who at their country 's call left these hills and 
plains, which they loved no less than we, to lay down their lives on the fields of 
Virginia. 

For these reasons North Carolinians can never be indifferent to Eiehmond; 
nor can Richmond ever be indifferent to them. 

In the Confederate museum, which occupies the war-time residence of 
President Davis, there is a North Carolina room, along the side of which, in 
large letters, runs the ringing line which summarizes our record in the war — 
"First at Bethel, farthest at Gettysburg, last at Appomattox" — and from the 
walls of which, among the portraits of other men of our stock whom Virginia 
delights to honor, there looks down the strong and genial face of that transcen- 
dant North Carolinian, Zebulon B. Vance, the greatest war-governor of any 
State, North or South, and the man who, on a later occasion, when Virginia 
lacked a fit champion of her own on the floor of the Federal Senate, became her 
defender, and stood as fearlessly for the rights of her people as he had ever 
stood for the rights of his own. Virginia will never forget that service. Dis- 
tinguished natives and residents of the State have vied with each other in 
expressing their enthusiastic appreciation of the character and services of our 
great senator, and of the great people whom he represented. Only yesterday I 
was reading such a tribute from General Bradley T. Johnson, over whose bier 
Virginia bowed herself weeping less than a week ago. He says that Governor 
Vance's purchase of steamers with the State's money during the war, and his 
organization of a line from Wilmington to Bermuda, kept North Carolina sol- 
diers the best armed, best clothed, and best equipped of any in the field; and 
he uses the fact as an illustration of what he calls our extraordinary capacity 
of knowing what to do, and of doing it. For he declares that the most marked 
characteristic of the North Carolinian is his executive capacity — his ability to 
do things. And, he adds, this beats to nothing the ability to talk. He has 
never distinguished himself much as an orator or as a writer; he has never been 
a Patrick Henry nor a Jefferson; but in seeing the thing to do, and in doing it, 
he surpasses all Southern men. The same gallant soldier says that in 1861 the 
military population of North Carolina was 11.5,369, and she furnished 125,000 
men to the Confederate army, nearly one-third of whom perished during the 
conflict. And yet, when the end came, both at Appomattox and at Greensboro, 
she stacked more muskets than any other State of the Confederacy. 

These generous words indicate, far more fittingly than anything which it 
would be proper for me to say, the hearty admiration felt by Eiehmond for 
North Carolinians, and, as I need hardly add, the North Carolinians resident 
there reciprocate the feeling heart and soul. One of the most honored veterans 



88 First North Carolina Reunion 

iu Richmond, and one of my warmest personal friends, while yielding to no man 
in his admiration of North Carolina's devotion and courage, thinks that per- 
haps the claims thus put foi-ward by writers from Virginia and Maryland as to 
North Carolina 's part in the war have been a trifle overdrawn, but, after every 
abatement in the interests of absolute accuracy, it remains a glorious record. 
And the Virginians rejoice to recognize it. 

Another gallant gentleman and Confederate veteran, one of the staff oflBcers 
of Stonewall Jackson, now my neighbor and intimate personal friend, who 
could have marched with Deborah's soldiers out of Zebulum according to either 
the Authorized Version or the Revised, since he can handle with equal ease the 
marshal's baton and the pen of the writer, but who now has laid aside the 
sword for good, and is permanently engaged in the peaceful pursuit of editing 
a religious newspaper, says handsomely in his last issue that the reason there 
are so many distinguished non-resident natives of the Old North State is that 
they are in such great demand elsewhere; adding that if North Carolina were 
to withdraw from Virginia her many sons and daughters, there would be a 
serious disturbance if not a breakdown of some institutions. 

These kindly expressions indicate well the delightful relations existing 
between the North Carolinians living in Richmond and the people of the fair 
city of their adoption. 

But I hasten to turn these remarks into another channel, lest we appear to 
be guilty of unseemly self-praise. I was told recently of a native of North 
Carolina, and of my part of North Carolina, too, who had moved to one of the 
Gulf States, and naturally enough had been made governor of the State, and 
had given the commonwealth a strong, clean, prosperous administration; and 
who, on standing for re-election, reviewed his services to the State with par- 
donable pride, describing con amore and in extenso what he had done for her, 
and dwelling upon it with such evident satisfaction and glowing emphasis as to 
call forth from an old darkey who was among his hearers, and who was asked 
what he thought of the governor 's speech, the succinct remark, ' ' He sut 'nly do 
recommend hisself ". But, Mr. President, if we seem to do the same this after- 
noon, let it be remembered that this is our time for boasting, if ever such a time 
comes to such a people as ours — this is North Carolina day. Surely it may be 
permitted a solid, steady, thorough-going State like ours, which has ever been 
more renowned for doing things than for talking about them, to call attention, 
once in a modest way, on the occasion of the first Reunion of her scattered sons 
and daughters, to what the people have said about them among whom they have 
lived. Nay, sir; I go further. If Sir Walter Scott was correct in what he said 
about Roderick Dhu that 

"One blast upon his bugle horn 
Were worth a thousand men"; 

then, reversing the sentiment, I should say that for three hundred and thirty 
thousand men of North Carolina birth, living and laboring in other States, even 
two blasts upon a bugle horn were not a blast too much. Moreover, my point in 
quoting what Virginians have said about North Carolinians was to show how 
happy the relations are which exist between these generous and high-minded 
people of the Old Dominion and the North Carolinians who have gone to dwell 
among them. 

But, besides this bond of sacred sentiment to which I have referred, grow- 
ing out of their brotherhood in the days that tried men's souls, when shoulder 




Honorable J. Bryan Grimes 

Secretary nf State 



First North Carolina Reunion 89 

to shoulder they marched and fought, and side by side laid down their lives — 
besides the respect and confidence developed in a common experience of disaster 
and sorrow, when both proud commonwealths were trampled and plundered — 
besides the grateful appreciation and affection kindled in the heai'ts of Vir- 
ginians by the chivalrous services rendered their State by North Carolinians, 
and the equally grateful appreciation and affection kindled in the hearts of 
North Carolinians by the no-less chivalrous services rendered their State by 
Virginians — besides this bond of sacred sentiment, there is between us ;i bond 
of common business interests, which can probably not be paralleled in the rela- 
tions existing between any other two States in the Union. Not only do these 
States lie side by side along a boundary line of some three hundred and fifty 
miles, like two fair sisters in loving embrace — not only is this the longest single 
boundary between any two of the original thirteen States, so that more of their 
territory is in actual juxtaposition and contact than in the case of any other 
two, but the line itself is an arbitrary one; determined by no natural barrier; 
and is, therefore, invisible and easily crossed, so that the people of the two 
States easily mingle. As the New Eiver flows from North Carolina into Vir- 
ginia and the Dan from Virginia into North Carolina; both, however, crossing 
and recrossing the line repeatedly, as though liking both States so nuich that 
they can not decide which they like best; so the people of the two cross and 
rccross the border, equally at home on either side. 

Another thing which has mightily promoted the commercial as well as 
social intimacy of the two commonwealths is the way in which the railroads 
have been built. 

Great trunk lines, running North and South, and traversing the whole width 
of both, and sending lateral ramifications this way auj that, have bound the two 
States together in bands of steel. Our North Carolina railways have sought the 
sea as much or more by the deep-water ports of Virginia than by those of our 
own State, and have poured our cotton and tobacco and other products, as well 
as our men and women, into Norfolk and Richmond in a steady and enriching 
stream. It is the radiating railways of Richmond which have made her so 
largely the distributing center of North Carolina as well as Virginia. 

And in this day of shifting properties and more elaborate organization, 
with their promise of still larger prosperity, it well becomes both Richmond 
and North Carolina to recall the debt they owe to the men like (Jolonel Buford 
and his co-laborers, who first developed the great system which has ever since 
been and must continue to be the keystone of the arch so far as systems of 
transportation between North Carolina and Virginia are concerned. 

We feel, then, that North Carolina has contributed no little to the upbuild- 
ing of Richmond. In short, we fee! that in every wmv our interests are largely 
identified. As Tarheels born, we can never be weaned from North Carolina; 
but we are thoroughly naturalized at Richmond. We feel perfectly at home 
there — and indeed when I meet them on the street I find it as diflSoult to tell 
the Richmonder who was born in Virginia from the Riehmonder who was born 
in North Carolina as it would be to tell the Dromio of Ephesus from the Di'omio 
of Syracuse. They are alike courteous, gentle, and just; manly, straightfor- 
ward, and true. Richmond's interests arc ouv interests, and, as we think of her 
splendid natural advantages, her elevated inland situation, with her swelling 
hills and breezy plateaus, midway between the mountains and the sea, at the 
head of steamboat navigation, with the falls of the James to drive her machin- 
ery; as we think of her business enterprise, iiistorical interest, social refinement, 

K N. C. R.— VII 



90 First North Carolma Reunion 

and educational facilities, all residents of Eichmond, Tarheel and Tuckahoe 
alike, exclaim with affectionate pride, in the language of the great apostle, 
"We are citizens of no mean city". 

Mr. President, it was once said by a gifted son of Maryland that one of 
the outstanding characteristics of the North Carolinian is that he loves his 
State, and believes she is the best State that ever was. That is true. Your 
genuine Tarheel never has any other opinion. And I have this to say for the 
North Carolinians in Richmond, that there is not one of them who has ever 
harbored a disloyal or unfilial thought about the old State from which he came; 
not one of them who has ever tried to pillory the old mother who bore him and 
nourished him, to hold her up to public derision; not one of them who has 
spoken with scorn and bitterness of the shortcomings of the good old common- 
wealth; not one of them who has failed to sympathize with the enormous diffi- 
culties and disadvantages with which she has had to contend; not one of them 
who has ever felt for a moment any loss of love for her on account of a change 
in his place of residence. Judge Hall, of Georgia, says that when war was 
declared against Spain the darkies became greatly agitated, because there was 
talk of putting them to the front to fight the Spaniards. They offered all sorts 
of excuses for not enlisting. One old negro said to a gentleman who was urging 
him to take up arms against Spain: "Whut fur. Mars George? I ain't got 
nuthin' agin them Spaniels. They never dun nuthin' to me. Whut 's the use 
of us fightin'?" 

"Patriotism'", replied the gentleman; "you should tight for love of 
country". 

"Heh", said the darkey; "luv er country; I dun live in town so long I 
aint got no use fer de country ' '. 

If there are any North Carolinians of that stripe, who since moving to 
town feel that way about their native State, I don't know them; and what is 
more I don't want to know them. I would prefer the acquaintance of Benedict 
Arnold. 

At the same time, sir, we recognize the needs of our dear old State, and we 
are in full sympathy with the industrial, educational, and literary awakening 
which is the great characteristic of our time in North Carolina. As to the new 
era in our industries, I have no manner of doubt that we are on the threshold 
of a period of the greatest prosperity ever known in our history, and that our 
State is destined to be one of the richest in the Union, not only in the sense of 
possessing abundant wealth, but in the far more important sense of having that 
wealth well diffused among the people, instead of being congested into one or 
two plethoric channels. 

As to the educational awakening, it is one of the greatest pleasures of this 
unique occasion to us home-coming Carolinians to meet here again today the 
men who have been your leaders in that great movement, and who have done 
so much to roll away the reproach of our illiteracy. 

As to your literary activity, proper, let me say that we have welcomed with 
particular pleasure the appearance of the North Carolina booklets, Mrs. McCor- 
kle's admirable little volume of Old-Time Stories of the Old North State, for 
the children, and similar publications. Let this good work go on, till even the 
people of New England have learned something about the events of the Revo- 
lution in the South. Chauncey Depew says that the New England Puritan was 
a bigot and a sectary, fighting to preserve his own religious liberty, and to 
destroy that of everybody else: believing conscientiously in the political free- 
dom of himself, and the political suppression of everybody else. Whether that 



First North Carolina Beunion 91 

be true or not, it looks as if his descendants had very industriously recorded 
and magnified their own history, and had with equal industry ignored and neg- 
lected the history of nearly everybody else in this country. They have been so 
busy magnifying Israel Putnam 's bear-trackings and horseback rides and other 
matters more worthy of the process, that they have had no time to read or 
write of decisive events like the battles of Moore's Creek, King's Mountain, 
and Guilford Courthouse. At any rate, Senator Hoar, who is a pretty-well- 
informed man about some things, declared that he had never heard of Moore 's 
Creek Bridge. Woe to the people whose history is written either by their 
enemies or by persons who are afflicted with the disease of big I and little U. 

Mr. President, we feel today like the little boy to whom the minister said, 
"Well, Johnnie, I hear you are going to school now". "Yes, sir", was the 
reply. "And what part of it do you like best?" asked the good man. " Comin ' 
home ' ', was the prompt and truthful answer. That 's the way we feel, sir. The 
best thing about going away from North Carolina is coming back again. 

Governor Ayeock, you have welcomed us today in words that will warm our 
hearts as long as we live. Let me say to you in reply that if the North Caro- 
linians who do live in North Carolina are as glad to see the North Carolinians 
who don't live in North Carolina as the North Carolinians who don't live iu 
North Carolina are to see the North Carolinians who do live in North Carolina, 
then, sir, this should be the happiest occasion in the history of the State. (It 
is a positive pleasure to roll the good old name from one 's tongue over and 
over.) 

My countrymen, in conclusion of these remarks upon the relations existing 
between North Carolinians and Virginians, I give you the sentiment formulated 
on the field of Appomattox, in the hour of his anguish, by that illustrious Vir- 
ginian who had watched for years, with ever-increasing admiration, tlie stead- 
fast courage and unsurpassed discipline of the troops from North Carolina. As 
he waited, heart-broken, for a courier carrying some message concerning the 
surrender which all now knew to be inevitable, his military ear caught the firm 
and steady tramp of a brigade marching into action in as good order and with 
as dauntless courage as though they were on the eve of a sweeping victory 
instead of the inevitable defeat which every man foresaw. General Lee raised 
his head and asked sharply, "What brigade is that?" "Cox's North Caro- 
lina", replied an otfieer. The great Virginian's eyes filled with tears, and, as 
the men swung past hir.i, he lifted his hat and said: "God bless old North 
Carolina ' '. 




Honorable Benjamin R. I.acy 

Treasurer of North Carolina 



Entertainments 



93 




o 






Entertainments 



The charming entertainments provided and given on the evening of 
the twelfth by the faculties and young ladies of the North Carolina 
State Normal and Industrial College, and Greensboro Female College, 
and by the Pythians of the Gate City, from 8 to 9.30 o'clock, and 
the delightful receptions given by the clubs of the city, and at the vari- 
ous headquarters from 9.30 to 11.30 o'clock, on the same evening, 
were largely attended and highly enjoyable. 



Unique Entertainment 

One of the most novel and clever entertainments ever given at the 
State Normal and Industrial College took place in the assembly hall of 
the college Monday night of Reunion, before an audience which filled 
the vast auditorium to overflowing. It was an entertainment given by 
the Normal students complimentary to the visitors in the city. The 
girls acquitted themselves well, and the audience was responsive and 
enthusiastic. The show was unique and original. 

The program comprised selections concerning North Carolina, her 
history, her industries and institutions, and her kin. Miss Inez Flow 
acted the part of ' ' Carolina ' '. She was tastefiilly adorned in the colors 
of the State and nation, and looked modest and sweet. 

The first item on the program was Roanoke Island, by Miss Mclver, 
as Mrs. Dare; Miss Lacy, as Sir Walter Raleigh, and three girls as 
Indians. 

This was followed by the "Edenton Tea Party", "The Mecklen- 
burg Declaration", "Battle of Guilford Courthouse", "the Civil 
War", and "the Spanish- American War". 

The representation of Mecklenburg was exceptionally good. A 
large hornets' nest was built on wheels, and when the curtain went up 
four pretty girls, playing the parts of hornets, poked their heads out 
of the holes in the nest. 

The marching of the soldiers of the "Battle of Guilford Court- 
house" was liberally applauded. 



96 First North Carolina Reunion 

The civil war soldier srirls sang "TentiiiEr on the Old Camp 
Ground", with splendid force and effect. 

The second part of the program consisted of representations of the 
industrial life, and the educational, charitable, and penal institutions 
of the State. 

At the close of the selection, the girls sang, ' ' The Old North State ' '. 
Every girl who attends the Nonnal College must leara to sing that 
patriotic song ; that is part of the training. 

The following States were represented as owing North Carolina a 
debt of gratitude : Tennessee, her debtor for three Presidents of the 
United States; they being Andrew Jackson, Polk, and Johnson-, Vir- 
ginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Indiana, Pennsyl- 
vania, ^Maryland. Massachusetts, jMontana. ^Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois, 
New York, Arkansas, Texas, and Florida. Some of the representations 
were fine. A coterie of pretty girls sang "Carolina", and made a 
chorus of "It is too long between drinks", for South Cai-olina. 

Texas was championed by a broncho buster, who had a fierce con- 
tempt for tenderfeet. Miss May Williams was the Texas. She made 
the audience roar. She had a swagger and a swing that was smart. 
The show was good from start to finish, and everybody there enjoyed it. 

Eight girls, dre.ssed and blacked as negresses, made cotton bags, and 
sung and danced like negro minstrels. They were encored. 

In representing Carolina, Miss Plow said: "To old and young, to 
high and low, Carolina brings a hearty greeting. To you that came 
from North and South and East and West, O, my beloved children, a 
joyous welcome home. With a mother's love and longing, my spirit 
followed you hence. With a mother's love and pride, my heart leaps 
to greet yours, in this, our first Reimion. My children, gi'eat and small, 
present and absent, are making glorious history in eveiy part of this 
wide world; but tonight you are only my children. Let us turn at 
random, then, a few pages of our old picture book." 

All the tableaux were splendid. Some genius had conceived them. 

The entertainment lasted for a little more than an hour, and was 
followed by a most charming infoi-mal reception, giving an opportunity 
for meeting friends and spending the rest of the evening delightfully. 



Delightful Entertainment and Reception to Visitors 

at Greensboro Female College 

One of the most enjoyable features of the Reunion ^\as the enter- 
tainment and reception Monday night at Greensboro Female College. 
Quite a large audience was present, and every one must have enjoyed 




Mrs. Lucy H. Robertson 

President of Greensboro Female College 



First North Carolina Reunion 



97 



the event. The whok^ program was very much enjoyed, especially the 
recitations by Miss Shattuck. After the regular program, Governor 
Ayeock, General Julian S. Carr, Mr. Josephus Daniels, Dr. James 
Atkins, Dr. C. W. Byrd, and Rev. J. D. Arnold, made a few pleasant 
and very happy remarks. 

Many of the audience remained after the regular program was con- 
cluded, and enjoyed a pleasant .social hour. 

The college was handsomely decorated in green and white — the 
college colors — and with the National and North Carolina flags. 

On Tuesday, October 13, the young ladies of the college went to the 
Battle Ground in a body, on a special train, and joined in the great 
basket picnic. 




At the Guilford Battle 
Ground 



99 




Horn ira bit' A. L. Fitz<^erald 

Cliief Justice nf the Supreme Court of Nevada 



Tuesday, October Thirteenth 



'Diis \vas the big; day of the Reunion and scored the largest attend- 
ance. There were trains every forty minutes from the city to the 
Battle Ground, and thousands came by private conveyance from the 
surrounding country. At the hour fixed for the opening of the exer- 
cises it was estimated that there were more than twenty thousand people 
on the grounds of the Battle Park. It was a tj'pical North Carolina 
audience. Said General Ransom, "the whole face of the earth appears 
to be covered with home folks and strangers". 

Promptly at 10.30 a. m. President Melver called the great audience 
to order, and announced the opening- invocation by Rev. Dr. W. W. 
Jloore, vrho said: 

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, without whose favor no people can 
prosper, we render tliee our humble and hearty thanks for thy good hand upon 
our i)eople from the beginning of their history to the present day. We thank 
thee for the gift of this goodh' land to our fathers, and for the gift of our 
fathers to this land — men who knew the right and, knowing, dared maintain. 
We thank theo for the freedom which they purchased with their blood and 
bequeathed to us with their prayers. Impress us profoundly with the fact that 
wc can best commemorate their services by emulating their virtues. God of 
our fathers, be the God of their succeeding race. May the abundant blessing 
of the Lord God Almighty abide upon our beloved State and upon all her song 
and daughters, at home and abroad, henceforth and forever. Glory be to the 
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is 
now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. 



Address by Honorable A. C. Fitzgerald 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada 

An Offliaud Sage-Brush Ofl'ering at the Guilford Battle Ground 

Zvlr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

Deep was my sympathy for the distinguished President of your Board of 
Managers (Dr.McIver),when it appeared, at the Opera House on yesterday, that 
the sun had too early hastened over the Western hills, and night was fast fall- 
ing before the gentlemen designated then to address you had all spoken; and 

101 



102 First North Carolina Reunion 

he announceil that those who hatl been so designated and who had not already 
spoken would be placed as a kind of prefatory annex to the entertainment to 
be given at the ' ' Battle Ground ' ' today. 

The Doctor's situation reminded me of a story (although, as you are 
aware, a North Carolinian, whether resident or non-resident, rarely indulges 
himself in the luxury of telling a story). An aged brother, seventy -two years 
old, was superintendent of a Sunday school. An aged minister, likewise sev- 
enty-two, visited the school; and was by the superintendent called on to pray. 
He prayed, and prayed, and prayed! When at last he brought his orisons to an 
end, the superintendent said: 

"Well, children, so much time has run to waste, we will not have any les- 
sons today ' '. 

I must entreat, ladies and gentlemen, that you do not press the analogies 
of this story too far. For instance; it is not at all intended to be insinuated 
that Dr. Mclver, although he is indeed venerable in knowledge and wisdom, is 
likewise so in years and hours. In thoughts and good deeds he has lived long; 
in days and years not so much so. 

This day should indeed be memorable. With me surely it will be ever in 
pleasure remembered when many other pleasant things of the bright beauty of 
this fair world shall have faded from my view. 

The first thought of the head and the first feeling of the heart with me 
today is gladness — gladness that I am today among you, you the sons and 
daughters of "the glorious Old North State", as well the non-resident as the 
resident. Once I had the honor to be classed among the latter, the residents; 
now I am to be classed among the former, the non-residents. Always have I 
been proud, and today am I proud, to say that I was born in the good old 
county of Rockingham, in the glorious old state of North Carolina — shall I add, 
as did an Irishman of his loved city of Dublin — "at a very early period of my 
life"! 

A year or so ago, at a gathering in Nevada, I was asked by a gentleman in 
what State I was born. I replied, " in that State in which the first Declaration 
of Independence of the British crown was made, and also the first battle of the 
American Revolution was fought". 

Are you surprised that I had, after further inquiry, to announce the name 
North Carolina? Such is history. 

From what I saw on my hitherward journey in the State, and since arrival 
in your good city of Greensboro, and heard from the eloquent lips of Governor 
Ayeock and Colonel Morehead when on yesterday, the first in the name of the 
State, and the second in the name of the city, gave to us who have wandered 
that memorable welcome, that genuine heart-welcome, characteristic even of the 
North Carolinian of the olden time, to that hospitality also so characteristic of 
the North Carolinian of the olden time — yea; also from what other eloquent 
lips have said to us yesterday and today — we see that North Carolina has, since 
the departure of us who have wandered, made progress. Progress indeed in 
physical things — the useful, the necessary, the convenient, and even the luxuri- 
ous. But glad indeed are we, the wanderers, to see that she has not lagged in 
the better things — things intellectual, moral, and spiritual; schools, colleges, 
printing presses, hospitals, and churches. These, as well as the others, appear 
to be many in number and good in kind. 

Of one thing among the improvements I can not refrain from making 
special mention, to wit: this gloriously famous Guilford Courthouse Battle 
Ground; happily now redeemed from its sometime obscurity and neglect, and set 



First North Carolina Reunion 103 

forth in light and beauty to be hereafter ever a tribute to the merited valor and 
worth of Carolinian and Virginian soldiers, and likewise an incentive to the 
present generation and each future generation ever to imitate their noble exam- 
ple. For this, I am informed, the greatest honor is due to Judge David Schenck. 
It is not the lands and houses and mansions and goods and jewels and moneys 
of our ancestors that constitute the noblest inheritance that we have received 
from them; it is their good and great thoughts, andjtheir good and great and 
noble deeds, that make up their best legacy to us. In these they have left us 
rich indeed. Let us not by our sloth and inattention to them make ourselves 
poor. I see that you, the residents, have not made yourselves poor; and we, the 
wanderers, shall endeavor to imitate your example. 

Somewhere, I have seen it stated that a very large audience assembled to 
hear Mr. Webster when he made what in history is known as the Bunker-Hill- 
Monument oration. The crowd pressed around the speaking stand to such an 
extent that the exercises could not proceed. The efforts of the chairman and 
those of the committee to get it to move back were unavailing. It was sug- 
gested that Mr. Webster request the crowd to move back, it being supposed that 
his great influence with them would make them heed. He did so. Some one in 
the crowd called out, "Mr. Webster, it is impossible". Mr. Webster replied, 
"On Bunker Hill, on the Fourth of July, nothing is impossible". It is said that 
instantly the crowd moved back, with a simultaneous impulse, as if touched 
with a magic wand! 

So, ladies and gentlemen, it seems to me today: On this ideally-perfect 
day, at the Guilford Courthouse Battle Ground (itself as ideally perfect as a 
Greek grove, peopled with its mythological beings, nymphs and dryads, etc.), 
as looking into the multitude of earnest and upturned faces of this great audi- 
ence of brave men and fair women, descendants of the brave and the fair of the 
dark days of the Revolutionary Period; a few, indeed, those of the gray head 
and infirm step, being companions of my own youth and struggling early man- 
hood; I feel that nothing is impossible — nothing! Not even that I, the obscur- 
est and humblest of those who have wandered; I, whom the untiring energy of 
your Committee of Management found even away out in the land of the sage- 
brush, the smallest and most somber of the sisterhood of American States; I, 
whom they found and honored with an invitation to be present here today; aye, 
nothing is impossible; not even that I could make a speech! But, ladies and 
gentlemen, can I do it in the space of time allotted — seven minutes? 

When I first was informed, on the afternoon of the day before yesterday, 
that a speech was expected of me here today; and, after a refusal, told that I 
must make one; my first thought was what shall I, can I, say? That thought 
has been occurring to me at every moment of leisure since; such moments, too, 
have been, thanks to the many kindly greetings and cordial welcomes of old 
and new friends, few. That thought is occurring to me now. What shall I say? 
You are waiting to hear and I am struggling to say it; and, ladies and gentle- 
men, I verily believe that you will solve the problem as soon as I. But I, too. 
like the residents, must make progress in saying it; and O, that the genius of 
oratory would come for once in a long and troubled life and touch my leaden 
lips! 

What is the significance of this occasion? You, ladies and gentlemen resi- 
dent, have by this occasion shown to us who have wandered what you think of 
us, in the very kind and courteous and generous invitation that you sent us to 
be your guests today — sacred word guest, meaning thereby the friend who once 
was absent but now is present; yet still, present or absent, ever and always a 



104 Flrtil Xurth Carolina Reunion 

friend. We, the wanderers, feel pleased ami houoreil today to be your guests^ 
guests in a threefold sense; first of the State, as your honored Governor has told 
us; second of the city, as its distinguished Mayor has informed us; and third of 
the fireside and the home, as the eyes that have at all times so kindly looked 
iuto ours continually say to us. 

But what is it that you have thus shown us? It is that you have remem- 
bered and loved us. Is it that you could have show^n moref We answer: No; 
and for this great showing we say truly, gratefully, sincerely, we thank you. 

Now, can we who have wandered show as much to you? We say we feel as 
much; but mistrust our skill and ability to show it. You speak your showing 
liy deed; we can speak ours only by the less-striking word, unless our accepting 
your invitation and coming to you be deeds of some little significance that we 
love you. Be pleased to accept them in that light. 

But words are not useless; they are the signs of things. Please indulge me 
ill a few words that are significant of things: In June of 1866, I, with sad 
lieart, turned my footsteps away from the then war-desolated state of North 
Carolina, to that new and flourishing state at the Westernmost boundary of the 
great Republic, California. Some months after arrival at the city by the Golden 
Gate, San Francisco, an incident occurred that I beg you to permit me to relate: 
It may have some significance to you in the way of expression of the wanderer's 
thought of you. There was a brilliant evening part}'. I had the honor to be 
there an invited guest. A very beautiful and highly-accomplished young lady 
— beautiful and accomplished, indeed, she was; but allow me to add not more 
so than were ' ' the girls I left behind me ' ' — asked me which I liked the 
better, North Carolina or California. I "made answer and said": 

If Azrael, the angel of death, should, while I was in California, take my soul, 
1 should endeavor to pursuade him not to take it in a straight line in the per- 
pendicular up from the city by the Golden Gate to the abode of the blest; but 
to go with it on an incline to the eastward, until he should reach a spot imme- 
diately in the perpendicular over a little red hill in Kockingham County, N. C; 
and there place in my hand the title deed to my "mansion in the skies". 

That was my sentiment then. What is it now? Well, after a residence of 
nearly four decades on the Pacific Coast — eleven years in California, the land of 
gold, and twenty-five in Nevada, the land of silver and gold — should Azrael 
come while I am in the "land of the sage-brush", I should bespeak him thus: 
"Lo, Azrael; you, 1 am told, have, as the boys out West say, ' a pull' up 
there. Though, I am compelled to say, it can not be for your good looks; for I 
frankly say to you that I have yet to see the man who did not look upon your 
countenance with horror. It must be then for your acknowledged skill in col- 
onization, as both tradition and contemporaneous history say that you have 
been largely instrumental in the colonization of both the upper and also another 
place. But, however you may have gotten it, you have tlie 'jnill'; and you 
must help me. I need you with most pressing need. My situation is peculiar; 
unique; 'in a gang bj' itself. Now, the fact is, I must have two mansions up 
there where you are going to take me — can't get along without them: one, for 
reasons already stated, right in the perpendicular over the aforementioned little 
red hill in Eockingham County, N. C; and the other similarly right over a 
I'lccayed mining camp in Eureka County, Nev.; and, like Proserpine in the fable, 
I must be permitted by the authorities up there to spend one half of the celes- 
ti.al year in the Eureka and the other half in the Kockingham ' mansion in the 
skies '. ' ' 




Honorable Robert D. Gilnu r 

Attorney-General of North Carolina 



First North Carolina Reunion 105 

That, beloved residents, is a somewhat, though feeble, expression of the 
manner in which we, the wanderers, have felt and do feel towards you, the more 
sedate and the more stable. 

Perhaps you may spare a moment to hear a few words as to what others 
than the North Carolina non-residents think of you. But here for the want of 
facts I can speak only generally, as to what Westerners sometimes think of 
Easterners; and by no means specifically, of what Westerners think of North 
Carolinians. For I know of but one North Carolinian other than myself in 
Nevada; and as soon as I get back there he and I are going to form a "North 
Carolina Society". 

About two years ago a new mining region was discovered in Nye County, 
Nev. The mines are situated on the side of a bleak, barren mountain, with 
desert valleys stretching miles and miles away at its foot. The new district 
was named Tonapah. Within one and one-half years a town of five thousand 
people has sprung up there. A great many Easterners have gone to it — some 
from intellectual Boston, some from quiet Pennsylvania, some from busy, bus- 
tling New York, and some from elsewhere of the East; but so far as I know 
none from North Carolina. Tonapah is sixty miles from the railroad; and the 
way thereto is across dry, hot, desert valleys, and over equally-hot and dry 
mountains. A party of the above-named Easterners came out on their way to 
Tonapah, and made inquiry as to how they could know the way from the rail- 
road to the camp. Father Butler told them to have no fear, that the,v could 
not miss it; for a great many Easterners had passed over during the Summer, 
and the way was blazed with beer bottles! 

This is the opinion the Western man entertains on a prominent character- 
istic of the Eastern man, to wit: his temperance. 

His opinion of the Eastern man 's characteristic in another direction may 
perhaps be illustrated by the following: A far Easterner — that is, a Cockney — 
came out to the mining region; and though on pleasure bent he had yet a 
cautious mind. Stopping at one of the well-kept mining-region hotels, he rose 
early as a health measure; and seeing a mountain, as he supposed, but a short 
distance out, concluded that an ante-breakfast walk to it would promote appe- 
tite. He set out; but, as is well known, the atmosphere of the mining region of 
the United States is so pure, so free from moisture, and so packed with ozone or 
some other scientific something that I know nothing about, that ob.iects seen 
through it "seem so near and yet they are so far''. On went our tourist liour 
after hour. The mountain seemed near, but really was still far. With .John 
Bull tenacity, having once started, he persisted, and finally reached the moun- 
tain, returning to his hotel calling loudly for an eleven-o'clock breakfast, his 
physical feeling being, as a delicate young lady said after a long round dance 
in hot weather, ' ' all of a glow ' '. 

Now, ladies and gentlemen. North Carolinians, both the resident and the 
non-resident, I beseech you not here to enter a ton vigorous plea for repose — per- 
mit me to say this phrase is elegant Nevadaese when a dull speaker is requested 
by a wearied auditor "to give him a rest", meaning to leave the oratorical 
bema — I say do not just now make a plea for repose, saying to me that you have 
heard all that; give us something new or repose. Of course you have heard all 
that, long ago; and did I not know that you had? But I will "bet the oysters 
for the mess" that you have not heard all of the story. What you have heard 
was the story of the tourist of the bygone time; that which I am to tell you is 
the story of him today — a "current number", so to speak. 

F. N. C. R.— VIII 



106 First North Carolina Reunion 

But with me, I beg, again to the story. The landlord, kind-hearted soul, 
carefully explained the atmospheric phenomenon in question, ending with a few 
words of caution that our tourist should indeed be careful lest through the 
deceptive atmosphere he sometime lose his life in passing over valleys, moun- 
tains, and rivers. 

Our tourist carefully jots down in his note book, "Must be careful" — 
"Atmosphere very deceptive" — "Objects very distant seem very near" — 
' ' May, in consequence, lose life in passing over valleys, mountains, and rivers ' '. 

Next day he asked his landlord for new scenes of interest and pleasure. 
Boniface replied that that morning he himself was going in his buggy up the 
grade to the charming and picturesque little mining town of Snugville; that 
after a half-hour spent in business there he would go down the grade on the 
south side of Lake Cascade to the road leading from the hotel to a new mining 
camp a few miles to the south, in which he was interested; that our tourist 
could take a seat with him in the buggy, enjoy the beautiful scenery of the 
drive and of the lake, and get out at the junction of the lake grade and the 
main road leading south, and then by a four-mile walk northward, during which 
he would see and cross the beautiful Cascade Kiver, get back again to his 
hotel in good time and with well-whetted appetite for a rare lunch that had 
already been ordered for him. The trip was made, and our tourist left at the 
junction. The landlord went to his mines and returned by the way of Snug- 
ville, completing there the business of the morning; and by noon reached the 
hotel, expecting to see our hero, if not "all aglow" as on the previous morning, 
yet well prepared with appetite keen for the lunch. To his surprise our tourist 
had not been seen. Boniface waited hour after hour for him; finally, at three 
o'clock p. m., set out to see what was the matter; and found our hero sitting 
with look deji'fted and forlorn on the opposite bank of Cascade River, a stream 
four feet wide and one foot deep. The landlord called out: "What is the mat- 
ter? How long have you been here? Why have you not come home for lunch? 
What are you waiting for?" The tourist, putting his hands to his mouth to 
form something of a speaking trumpet, responded: "Matter enough; I have 
been here since eleven o'clock; am hungry as Hades; and am waiting for the 
blasted ferry boat! ' ' 

This is often the opinion that the Westerner has as to one characteristic of 
the Easterner — that he is sometimes after being imprudently caught in "wild- 
cat" mining speculation likely to become a little over-cautious in legitimate 
mining enterprises. 

In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen; after thanking you most sincerely for 
the very kind and courteous attention and reception that you have given me, 
allow me an additional moment to say that among the many and eloquent 
tributes of honor, love, and loyalty that were yesterday, and today thus far 
have been, and hereafter shall be, laid at the feet of our honored mother, the 
old North State, by her sons, both the resident and the non-resident, none will 
be more sincere than this humble one of mine, coming from the sage-brush land. 
As the variegated, brilliant, and gorgeous colors of the trees and undergrowth 
of your valleys and mountains, and the flowers of your fields and gardens, far 
outshine and overpass the somber shade of the monotonous sage-brush — if 
monotony can be properly predicated of a color; so far does the oratory of 
others outshine and overpass my leaden utterances. But as the unbrilliant hue 
of the sage-brush has one great merit — that is, it is sempiternal: so my humble 
love and loyalty to my native state has also one merit— it is unflagging and 
unending. 




Mr. SlH'i>ar(l Bryan 
of Atlanta. Ga. 



First Nortli Carolina Reunion 107 

Again thanking you for the high honor that you have done me; and assur- 
ing you that should you or any of you or any of the others of those living in the 
East, the place of light, ever do the sage-brush land the high honor of visiting 
it (and we earnestly hope that such may be the case), we will see that neither 
you nor they shall be drowned in Cascade River! 

I bid you a loving farewell. 



Address by Shepard Bryan, Esq. 
Representative of North Carolina Society of Atlatita, Ga. /^^* 

Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

I was to have responded to the address of welcome, on yesterday, at the 
Opera House, in behalf of the North Carolina Society of Atlanta. A change in 
the program placed me on today's list of speakers. Before leaving Atlanta I 
had prepared a few words of thanks and grateful appreciation to the Eeunion 
authorities for this occasion and all that it imports. But my speech was spoken 
by the other speakers. I must have lost my manuscript, for the speakers one 
after another spoke my speech. They "took and carried away" (as the larceny 
indictments say) part after part of my speech. Beginning with the Mecklen- 
burg Declaration; through the Revolutionary war; on through the terrible civil 
conflict; and ending with the late entanglement with the safEron-hued flag of 
Spain, speaker after speaker spoke my speech. They left me nothing. They left 
me bankrupt. They left me speechless; and as I sat and listened and waited 
for my time to come you may imagine the keen joy and exquisite pleasure of 
my torture. My condition then, this morning, forcibly reminds me of the Texas 
Justice of the Peace, who for years was known as ' ' the law west of the Pecos 
River". The body of a dead man was found in his district, and concealed in 
his clothes were found by a zealous bailifl: a six-shooter and a twenty-dollar bill. 
The discovery was reported to the Justice, and he ordered the body brought 
before him; whereupon he sat in solemn judgment, and gravely decided that the 
corpse should be fined twenty dollars for carrying concealed weapons, and the 
pistol be confiscated in the name of the law. You can perhaps understand my 
feelings as I face you today with my speech — every part of it — spoken; and I 
bidden nevertheless to speak. 

While my formal words of thanks are gone, my heart is full. As the repre- 
sentative of the North Carolina Society of Atlanta, I bring to you fraternal 
greetings — greetings of love and patriotic friendship. This occasion signifies 
the deep and abiding love of the mother for her children; and in me, as their 
messenger, the North Carolina Atlantans send back the token that they love 
their mother with a tender and lasting affection. I voice their sentiment when 
I say: North Carolina, mother dear, God's richest blessings rest upon you! 

In behalf of the same body of Carolinians, and in my own behalf, I return 
my sincere thanks for the generous, the hospitable, the Carolina welcome that 
has been today extended to the home-comers. 

As I look over this splendid multitude of brave men and beautiful women, 
my heart swells with the thought that I am of the same blood with them; that 
we have common memories and common hopes; that their fathers and my 
fathers fought and wrought and suffered and sacrificed that this commonwealth 
might be, and this Republic have life. 



108 First North Carolina Reunion 

Though separated from the land of our birth, we are ever mindful of the 
obligation which the nobility of honest Carolina blood lays upon us. As I speak, 
I recall that we are standing on Guilford Battle Ground, where the ragged Con- 
tinentals of the Carolina line won for themselves a crown of unfading glory 
and blazed out the path to Yorktown and American liberty. I remember that 
their sons charged at Buena Vista, and stormed the heights of Chapultepec. I 
remember that a generation agone North Carolina gave to a hopeless cause the 
flower of her youth, and that her immortal legions at Gettysburg and Chicka- 
mauga poured out their blood for "a nation that rose and fell"; nor can I for- 
get the sacrifices of her daughters in that awful struggle — their constancy, their 
devoted patriotism, and their sublime courage. 

But out of the darkness and gloom of defeat; out of the devastation and 
was^ of war; with all bitterness forgotten, and forgetting all the animosities 
of that fratricidal strife; with her eyes set to the future; she has gone about 
the earnest work of upbuihling and developing, and out of chaos has carved a 
mighty success. 

Fortune has led many of her sons and daughters to other States — where 
they have illustrated the sturdy qualities of their heritage. In the State of 
Georgia there are more than thirty thousand North Carolinians; and they are 
leaders. The lumber and turpentine kings of South Georgia; the prosperous 
planters of Middle Georgia; the business and professional men of North Georgia; 
number among their leaders many of the men of North Carolina. Atlanta, 
imperial city of the South, set upon her hills as the beacon-light of progress 
and industrial achievement, would be poorer indeed could the contributions of 
Carolina citizenship be blotted from her record. And I am here to affirm that 
I find among others no quality necessary for the making of a great and populous 
commonwealth; for the creation of an industrial empire; that the Carolina man 
does not possess in the highest degree. He has the courage — who doubts it? 
He has the business daring — listen to the hum of his spindles weaving cloth for 
the people of the earth; and his State has the raw material of every sort in her 
fertile fields and in the richness of her forests and mines. 

But what of all this? The lesson a North Carolinian who has spent the 
years of his manhood in a proud and successful city would bring to his own 
people today is this: Let the world know what opportunities North Carolina 
has for capital and men of character and enterprise. Advertise to the world 
that here capital can find safe and profitable investment, and men and women 
homes under fair laws, with fruitful soil, kindly and healthful climate, and every 
blessing that cheers the heart of man. You have capital, and you have men. 
But more men and more capital added to the present population and wealth 
would make this State the richest and most prosperous, as it is the fairest, in 
the world. 

In my city we talk a great deal about "the Atlanta spirit" — and liy this 
is meant the hearty co-operation of all her citizens upon any proposition for 
the moral or material betterment of the city. If it does not already exist let us 
have the "North Carolina spirit" — the spirit that believes in North Carolina; 
that realizes her destiny; that will sacrifice personal ends and interests for her 
good; that will co-operate regardless of party or creed in every work looking 
to her advancement and glory. 

This occasion is inspiring. We congratulate and thank those who have 
originated this home-coming. It is an inspiration and a lesson for those of us 
from beyond the State. We drink anew at the fountain of our early and best 
love, and feel again the loving arms of our mother State. We ,<ire proud of her 




Dr. Paul Barrin^er 

Chairman of Faculty of I'liiversity of Virginia 



First North Carolina Reunion 109 

present prosperity, and glory in her future greatness. She is standing in the 
dawn of an era of unexampled growth and industrial progress. Her flag is 
raised, and her sons and daughters are following it. It is the same flag that 
floated at Guilford, at King's Mountain, at Gettysburg, at Cardenas, and at 
Santiago. There her sons followed and did not falter. It is raised now in the 
cause of industrial and educational endeavor, and victory shall crown it, for the 
men who fought beneath it have the brain, the blood, the brawn, and the 
purpose to carry it on to heights of undreamed splendor. 



Address by Dr. Paul Barringer 
C(f the University of Virginia 

Your Excellency, the Governor of North Carolina, the members of the Guilford 

Battle Ground Association, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

Allow me first to express my pleasure at being here, and my obligations to 
Dr. Mclver for the opportunity he has given to me and other expatriated North 
Carolinians to meet again on home soil. It is particularly fitting that this old 
commonwealth should be the first in the South to inaugurate such a home-com- 
ing, for she is pre-eminently the home State. 

You have had such excellent words of hope and good cheer from others who 
have come to do honor to the State of their birth that I arise with some trepida- 
tion to bring my message and contribution. As a North Carolinian, one half of 
whose life has been spent without the borders of the State, I will take as the 
burden of my discourse today, the essential characteristics which I have found 
as peculiar to the sons of the Old North State at home and abroad. I believe, 
however, that I can speak as one who knows; for I have lived in several States 
besides my own, and I am familiar with North Carolinians in almost every State 
in the Union and in every walk in life. 

There is a common saying: "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand 
that rules the world". The same idea is expressed in the saying: "Give me 
the boy before his teens, and I care not who has him afterwards he is mine to 
the end". In both of these old sayings we have a tribute to the potency of 
early influence. 

There is, however, an influence which antedates this. The soil from which 
our forebears sprung, the air they breathed, the peculiar social conditions under 
which they lived — all made for the evolution of a tj^e before our parents were 
born. In North Carolina these forces have been at work upon our people for 
two centuries, and let us see what has been evolved as a race trait. Perhaps 
I may best explain by analogy. 

In a storm-girdled land in the hands of a strong persistent home-loving race 
(the Dutch), a bii'd, a simple dove, long known to mankind, has been found to 
have evolved peculiar instincts. Taken from the towers of Antwerp to any 
other spot on earth, this bird 's home yearning turns him, in swift flight, straight 
for the loft in which he was born. Young or old, captive to the vicissitudes of 
fortune in strange lands, he never forgets, but bears ever present in his breast 
the memory of his home. By the cultivation of the homing instinct, tested by 
the stern hazard of the flight ordeal, the homing pigeon has been evolved — 
quiet, brave, enduring, faithful to the end, fit emblem of any State, he stands 
the mysterious product of a peculiar locality. 



110 First North Carolina Reunion 

In the same way the Old North State has implanted the homing instinct in 
every child born of her soil. You men of Carolina -who have not left the old 
roof-tree, who have not seen your brethren captives of fortune, you do not 
appreciate the best that is within your own breasts. 

Years ago I met a gentleman from Ohio, a famous newspaper correspondent 
— a gentleman who honors us with his presence here today. In response to the 
spirit of kinship created by the knowledge of a common ancestral soil, he told 
me of his old father, how, leaving Orange County, N. C, when a boy, he went 
to Ohio, where he reared a family, and lived to be more than eighty years of 
age. He told me how, despite the new interests, the new associations, the 
estranging influences of new political needs, the old man still clung in memory 
to the home of his birth, and sixty-odd years after leaving the State, he still 
referred to it as " down home ' '. 

Wherever you go it is the same; the North Carolinian, even when anchored 
deep in an adopted State, still feels this yearning and voices it even in his form 
of speech. In the border cities of Virginia, where the expatriated Carolinians 
are numbered by the thousand, this local term of fond remembrance is so often 
heard that it gives a name to a class. The "down-home" crowd of Norfolk or 
Danville simply attest how universal is their State peculiarity. 

There is another way in which this human homing instinct manifests itself. 
It gives to the North Carolinian, both at home and abroad, a love of State 
rather than the usual State pride. There is a subtle difference in these forms 
of attachment. Love of State makes for State love in misfortune as well as in 
success — an eternal, unfailing loyalty. I have lived in States which had State 
pride — State pride perhaps in excess; but in no other people have I ever found 
the same simple love of locality found here. 

In a State settled by English, by Scotch, German, Swiss, Huguenot, and 
Scotch-Irish, which extends over two and one-half degrees of latitude, and rises 
from tidewater to mountains six thousand feet above the sea, you would expect 
to find a decided diversity in kind; but we have a singular homogenity in type. 
The early isolation and the peculiar social conditions of the State have evolved 
from all these types and telluric conditions a man as distinctive as the product 
of any other State on earth — simple, unpretentious, rugged, strong, lasting. 

North Carolina is the only State in the Union with a motto that was not 
ready-made. Most of the States, in a spirit as it were of prophecy, adopted a 
motto when statehood was assumed; but with you, after more than a century of 
waiting, you had yours not only made to order, but fitted on. Your motto fitted 
your history exactly. Despite a wonderful educational and industrial growth, 
your motto still fits you; and as one who admires the simple life of his native 
State I would urge that, no matter what vistas of opportunity and success may 
open for you in the future, you continue to cherish and preserve the ideals 
embraced in esse quam videri. 



Address by Mr. Murat Halstead, of Ohio 

Mr. Chairman, Governor Ayeock, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

I count this day auspicious in my calendar, for its greeting under the serene 
skies, and in the pleasant land of the home of my ancestors. We are in the 
midst of scenes memorable in history. The stars in their courses are all benig- 




Mr. Murat Halstf.-.d, .if Ohio 



First North Carolina Reunion 111 

nant, and they have shone near and far with the splendors of war. It is not 
without diffidence and emotion, I find myself met, not as a pilgrim stranger, but 
of the kindred and neighbors, welcomed as one returning from a long journey 
to his father's house. As one of the grandsons of the stalwart State of North 
Carolina, I do not feel I am unworthy your courteous and kindly consideration. 
I have not been unmindful of the storied traditions of the old State, and her 
records of the glories won by heroes on her battlefields, searched and stricken 
by the flame of the rifle, or marked by the furrows of the plow, in the corn- or 
cotton-fields. The sacred river by which a "stately pleasure dome" was 
decreed and arose — and this must have been ages ago in Asiatic dreamers' days, 
yet the like thing has lately happened in this State. A monarch of many mil- 
lions of golden coin has accounted for his palace, saying North Carolina furn- 
ished a painting worth more than the structure reared, that he might display to 
friends the wonderful picture gallery beheld from windows Westward. It is of 
the mountains, the river, and the skies. The celestial light that falls is furn- 
ished freely, and the franchise is forever. The sapphire arch spans the glorious 
collection of beauties, with which a zone of States from the South Atlantic to 
the Mississippi is endowed. Profound meaning is attached to the studies of the 
skies — the constellations and the clouds — and it has seemed to me a problem 
that might perplex; why my grandfather, John Halstead, held on his way 
through the magical, delectable mountains; entered Daniel Boone's paradise by 
way of Cumberland Gap; and beyond, where the pastures of Kentucky — the 
grass that caught the tint of the Carolina and Tennessee sky — spread like a 
blue ocean hung on high. But having committed himself to the adventure of 
leaving North Carolina, he crossed the beautiful river the French loved and 
lost, and found another goodly land with fruitful forests in the Miami country. 

There are three Miami Rivers in Ohio — the Great and the Little, and the 
Miami of the Lakes. Miami is Wyandotte for mother — the word nearest the 
divine. 

When we speak of the war of the States and sections in our country. It 
should be in terms that tell the truth fully and exactly, with regard for all 
and hostility for none, and that are instinct with household intimacy and affec- 
tion. Let us call it — Our American Home War. Under the terms of the treaty 
made by Grant and Lee, and the war was over, a Southern member of the 
National House of Eepresentatives was interrupted, in a way that challenged 
his standing, when he had the floor. One word — Appomattox — contains the full 
significance of the war and the peace, and the moral honor of Robert E. Lee, 
the potentiality of his character, made guerilla warfare impossible; and he 
should be always remembered and honored for it. There was glory enough to 
go around, and praise forever for all brave and humane men. The peace was 
peace with honor — all the heroes of the war were Americans. The sky that had 
been red with flame was fair with the white light of the glad tidings that the 
sword was not "to devour forever". The Southern Representative, stung by a 
taunt, was equal to the time and place. He said, in a tone and with a gesture 
that gave a general thrill of satisfaction and congraulation: "We are here in 
our father's house, and come to stay! " There was instant recognition that the 
solemn, ringing utterance was true, lofty, and timely. The representative man 
of the hour did not say a superfluous word — not even "again". He was equal 
with all others of the children of the common household — not a captive, but a 
citizen. His declaration was not boastful — it was vibrant with veracity. There 
was in it the melody of the "Old Kentucky Home", and the pathos of the 
Snwanee River. 



112 First North Carolina Reunion 

We are all in our father's house now to stay. There are many States, and 
mansions — rooms for all. We have been educated into better acquaintance with 
each other — North and South, East and West — in four years of war, than we 
could have gathered in a generation or a century of peace. Our country' has 
been fused and welded into a world power. The war was a combat of giants; 
but all the elements of progress evolve great nations. Our destiny decreed is 
the primacy. Our constellation of stars is a S3'stem of suns, each with inherent 
light and fire, indissoluble, inviolable, in majestic unity. 

I am told the only grandson of North Carolina, among the guests of the 
State at the Reunion, is myself. It seems a requirement of sensitive propriety 
that I should speak in this presence, in a representative character, of my people; 
and place before you my credentials. It was along the road that led to this 
battlefield my grandfather moved his family West a century ago; and my 
granddaughter is with me, studying the past, representing the future. It is due 
to hospitality, that those who honor me and mine, should be introduced to my 
' ' down-home ' ' kindred. I am myself a ' ' down-homer ", if I understand, and I 
distinctly do, the Carolinian vernacular. I could live here without complaining 
that the air had not oxygen enough in it. I suppose the air is almost as vivify- 
ing as in Old Currituck, called the ' ' Honk Corner ' ', out of admiration for the 
music of the waterfowl, and the winds from the stormy sea. 

There is generally, when an interest is taken in tracing ancestral immigra- 
tions, a tale that "Three Brothers" sailed together and landed at an incredible 
time on an invisible shore. That tripartite story has been recited of the 
Halsteads; but I don't believe the usual fancy applies to our case. There was 
a presumption that we came from Halstead, a town in Essex, thirty miles from 
London; and I thought that might be so, until I ascertained by examining the 
books, kept in a steel vault in the cathedral, and questioning the safe guardians, 
that there had not been a Halstead, a citizen of Halstead, for three hundred 
years! That seemed to settle it. However, a professional antiquarian offered 
to find out all about the Halsteads for a millennium of time, if I would give him 
the job, and pay him for the labor of investigating; but I declined. It was said 
a mystical badge, possibly a coat of arms, which was produced in red wax, 
existed in the mythical age of man; and also a cap or cape (I forget which), 
that had a weird embroidery of a figure that did not tell anybody anything; 
and whatever this was, quaint or strange, passed away in the sudden and swift 
burning of a wooden house, of the sort that are the crematories of history. The 
little information I have of the English home of our Halsteads is that they 
lived in the village of Chiselhurst and neighborhood, on the way from London 
to Canterbury. My grandfather told me that he was the fifth John Halstead 
in as many generations, all born in America; and so they must have been old 
settlers. I have copied the inscriptions on the tombs of my grandfather and 
grandmother, and my father, and I have transcribed the Bible record of births 
and deaths, and give this because there is a certainty and official responsibility 
about the dates that are fixed points of fact; and realizing the wear and tear 
and waste of authenticity the surprise is not that there is so little testimony 
presented, but so much. 

FROM THE EECOKDS IN THE FAMILY BIBLE 

John Halstead was born January 6, 1773. 
Ruth Richardson was born July 24, 1775. 




Dr. B. F. Dixdii 

Aiulilor of North Carolina 



First North Carolina Reunion 113 

BIETHS OF THE CHILDREN OF JOHN AND RUTH HALSTEAD 

Rebecca Halstead was born January 16, 1794. 
Iv_v Halstead was born January 11, 1797. 
Patsy Halstead was born March 28, 1800. 
Griffin Halstead was born June 11, 1802. 
John Halstead was born November 8, 1804. 
Sarah Halstead was born December 21, 1809. 
Ruth Halstead was born May 24, 1814. 



BIRTHS OF THE CHILDREN OF GRIFFIN AND CLARISSA HALSTEAD 

Carolina Halstead was born September 1, 1828. 
Murat Halstead was born September 2, 1829. 
Helen Halstead was born November 11, 1831. 
Benton Halstead was born March 11, 1834. 



FROM THE TOMBSTONES 

In Memory of 

JOHN HALSTEAD 

NATIVE OF NORTH CAROLINA 

who departed this life 

February 16, 1855, 

Aged eighty-four years and one month. 



In Memory of 

RUTH 

CONSORT OF JOHN HALSTEAD 

who departed this life 

September 30, 1841, 

Aged sixty-six years, three months, and seven days. 

Native of Pasquotank County, N. C, 

and a member of the Methodist Church 

for fifty-one years. 



The dynasty of the John Halsteads of Currituck lasted four generations, 
and then it ceased to be a line of oldest sons. The John Halstead, my grand- 
father, was not the senior son. His name was Mathias; and the John of 
the generation named his younger son for himself. He lived at Monte- 
zuma, Ind., on the Wabash, and was killed in a steamboat accident. He 
named his only son John; and he was serving in an Illinois regiment, and 
was severely wounded in the battle of Stone River, and perished of the 
wound. My oldest son was named John, and died when aged three months; 
and my oldest grandson, the last-named John, passed away in infancy. 
The Halsteads of the "Honk Corner" of North Carolina — Currituck — ■ 
were farmers, skilled in building their own houses and furnishing them with 



Hi First North Carolina Reunion 

their workmanship. They were expert carpenters, and there was nothing in 
wood work they could not do expertly. This talent promoted the fable that 
their first appearance on the Sounds of North Carolina was as ship builders, 
"three brothers" of course, but never discovered. There was a tragedy in 
which three Halstead brothers disappeared. They were on Albemarle Sound in 
a schooner, when in a squall the gib flew around and killed the youngest, knock- 
ing him overboard ami he was seen no more. The survivors landed, secured 
provisions from the colored people, and put to sea, saying they were going to 
Cuba. They did not dare face their father, and after many years there was a 
story that they had made their home in Cuba; but they never wrote a letter, 
and disappeared. 

The basic business of the Halsteads of Currituck was farming, but the soil 
did not beguile them with opulent variety, and so they highly appreciated their 
unlimited rights to the wild geese (hence the "Honk Corner") and to the per- 
petual harvest of fish— the redsnapper and the sheepshead. The fish at least 
remain, and there is still sport and even spoil on the waters — fish of the rarest 
flavor, displaying the prodigality of nature, world without end, food galore. As 
for the canvasback ducks and diamond-backed terrapin, they were held, before 
the Halstead immigration from the tidal country, as rather too cheap for white 
folks to eat. Perhaps the colored cooks of those days were deceptive in dealing 
with the masterful whites, and knew what was good well and wisely for their 
own good. William Cullen Bryant was the fir.st man who addressed ' ' Lines to 
a Waterfowl". As for reading matter, the Bible was held to be good enough 
for anybody, and sufBcient for all. It was read every day, and newspapers were 
almost unknown. My grandfather was brought up almost exclusively on the 
Scriptures, to which was added the Methodist Discipline; and he never saw a 
newspaper until he was eighteen years old. The latest news was confined to 
pamphlets and the prophets. The relations of separated families were main- 
tained through letters. When my grandfather was in his ninth year he was sent 
to Elizabeth City for epistles; heard a dreadful sound and felt a shocking shake 
— bursts of thundering, and the soft earth shivered and quaked. The inference 
was a hideous tempest was raking the Capes of Virginia. It was the sea fight 
in which the French fleet from the West Indies repulsed the British from New 
York, and made sure the surrender of Cornwallis. The people of the town were 
out in the streets — that is the women and children were, for the men had "gone 
to the war". There was terror when the broadsides of the battleships literally, 
as Tennyson put it, "volleyed and thundered", and the distant jarring and 
roaring seemed ominous of endless woe. The (tcople cared more in those days 
than they do now about the end of the world — for the news they cared most for 
was many centuries, at least, old, and the sound of battle seemed a sign that the 
earth might collapse. 

When the War of the Revolution and Independence was over, the West was 
the land of promise for the people on the Atlantic slope. George Washington 
knew more and cared more about the West than any other man born between 
tidal waves. Ohio received immigrants from all the original States. The 
people of my mother were from the "Susquehanna's side"; and while the Hal- 
steads traveled the length of North Carolina, and the Willits. my mother's 
family, moved on the line of the National Road, their meeting was on the Great 
Miami. This was the union of the North and South; and so it is simple heredity 
I was born to revere Andrew Jackson and believe in Daniel Webster. It was 
with hopeful dreams of better lands that the tide of immigration poured from 
Atlantic tidewater to the Ohio Valley — and the Halsteads found mulberry. 



First North Carolina Reunion 115 

persimmon, sugar maple, black and white walnut, oak, ash, and hickory trees, 
and springs of bright waters — where the floods of rivers did not molest or make 
afraid — and built in 1810 houses and barns of slippery-elm logs; bred horses, 
cattle, sheep, and hogs; and from year to year enlarged the cornfields, and pros- 
pered. Other North Carolinians came and assisted in making Butler County the 
Gibraltar of the Ohio Democracy. The only political contention between my 
father and graudfather was as to bestowing the higher faith and utterly bound- 
less devotion upon Andrew Jackson. I was saved from condemnation in cast- 
ing my only Presidential vote before my grandfather 's death for Frank. Pierce 
— but there was a strong breeze that shook the white sycamores around our 
house, when I held out on the proposition that Daniel Webster was a greater 
statesman than John C. Calhoun, and preferred any other newspaper to the 
"Charleston Mercury". However, I had the saving grace to agree with my 
father and grandfather that Andrew Jackson was right when he influenced the 
•'re-annexation of Texas", and applauded the good women of Cincinnati, who 
raised the money to buy and presented the two brass six-pounders that spoke 
out in meeting for Sam Houston, with Santa Anna at San Jacinto. There was 
another saving point in politcal life in that I knew as well as the rest of the 
family that Andrew Jackson was born in North Carolina. There was still 
another help when I left home "to go to college". It was my fate to fall into 
the hands of a Scotch professor who taught political economy on the free-trade 
plan, and it took me several years to outgrow it. 

In simple justice to them I must say here my father and grandfather lived 
many years after leaving North Carolina; but they remained obstinately, even 
aggressively, Carolinians to the last. My father had a severe trial when John 
Morgan rode through the Miami country, positively crossed Paddy's Run, and 
took the liberty of riding off the horses of life-long Democrats. Father thought 
that was wrong, and later was disturbed when his younger son, named for 
"Tom" Benton, of Missouri, not only "marched through Georgia", but North 
Carolina also, with Sherman; and was even a Captain and a combatant in the 
battle, named of all things " Benton ville". It was the fortune of war, however; 
and as the young man was reported to be a steady, hard fighter, the fact that 
he was incidentally on the wrong side, and yet was not killed, was forgiven. 

The old-style Halsteads were so proud of North Carolina, they did not care 
to say much about the fact that they were born close to the Virginia line. How- 
ever, they were In a second degree proud of Virginia, too. There is something 
in the superstition that Virginians can not bear that, but it has been exag- 
gerated. 

The first child of my parents was a daughter named Carolina. My father 
called her for the State, and her recorded name is not as her father gave It — 
but she died in her early infancy. My grandfather wrote a pamphlet, rolled the 
bundles into his big fireplace, and it was speedily ' ' out of print ' '. The author 
burned the whole edition, except three copies stolen, on account of faulty proof- 
reading. There have appeared several signs of traces of literary proclivities in 
our folks, and we have narrowly escaped ' ' dramatic ability ' '. Kev. William 
EUey Halstead* Is a grandson of Eeuben Halstead, a younger brother of my 

* His latest works are cataloged by the Methodi.st Book Concern, as follows : 

Halstead, Rev. William Riley 

Civil and Religious Forces (A discussion of the preser\'ative forces underlying civil society 

in the United States) ; 12mo ; 60 cents. 
Ivife on a Backwoods Farm, or the Boyhood of Reuben Rodney Blennerhasset (A story of 

an Indiana boyhood): illustrated; 12mo ; 50 cents. 
Christ ill the Industries (A survey of modern industrial conditions in America, from the 

standpoint of a thoughtful Christian believer); 12mo ; 76 cents. 



116 First North Carolina Reunion 

grandfather's; and his books are in steady demand from the Methodists. The 
spirit of erudite devotion skipped a generation or two. Dr. Albert Shaw, editor 
of the Eeview of Reviews, is the grandson of Rebecca, eldest daughter of the 
latest John Halstead, of Currituck; and judging by the specific gravity of ray 
printed productions, I ought to have a rank of magnitude as a literary fellow- 
laborer; but I struck politics, as Sherman's Bummers said they did a river iu 
South Carolina — ' ' endwise ' ', and the habit of wading in deep, muddy water 
spoiled my style. I do not feel certain that the literary streak that shows itself 
in the Halstead blood, is due the leader of the emigration from Currituck. It is 
held that the mothers are a shade more responsible for the literature that is of 
a real good sort than the fathers, and it stands to reason true. In justice to my 
grandfather from Currituck, I must say though he once warned me not to waste 
time as a school teacher, he was not satisfied with the "expression" of his long- 
ing for a larger literary life, in the ashes of the work he did not approve, 
though it was his very own. He was not the first man to find that one's views 
seem to change when they have passed through the hands of the printer. I 
have known, even in my own case, that a paragraph written at midnight, seemed 
in plain editorial type next morning to have a meaning more strenuous than had 
occurred to me at the moment of penmanship. The truth is the author of the 
book that was impetuously cremated, meditated over a formidable production 
of a theological nature, but did not meet with much encouragement, and though 
he took to the task assigned for his old age heartily at times, he left the manu- 
script in an unfinished state, and so it was not given publicity. The pvirpose 
was in him to produce a big book; but in advanced years his writing was diflS- 
cult. Eventually, the example he gave in the disposition of his small work was 
followed with his great one (that is the written sheets were fired) ; but if this 
is to be considered a family affair, I claim to have written enough bulky books 
to make up for the leaves that are lost, though I have lacked the courage to 
tackle theology. The truth is my grandfather was diverted from his career by 
fireside influences, that were only then and there combustible. There is blazing 
testimony that he cheerfully made a sacrifice. In order to do him the equal and 
exact justice recommended by Thomas Jefferson, to men of all persuasions, 
religious or political, John Halstead, of Currituck, lost his high standing in the 
Church by the radical defense he made of the right of "The New Lights" to 
partake of sacrament, with those who were of good standing in evangelical 
denominations. In that generous service he mounted a stump (a real stump) at 
a camp meeting and made a speech that cut short his orthodox career — and he 
thought to right that wrong in a full-blown book and deal vengeance (^) around 
the land. 

In the battle of Fredericksburg, the division of Meade made, with tem- 
porary success, an attack upon Lee's right, and a group of prisoners were taken. 
I had a few amicable words with a tall young man, and asked him from what 
State he came. He said "North Carolina". 1 asked what county was his birth- 
place; and he named Orange, my father's birthplace! An account that I wrote 
of the battle of Fredericksburg, drew from an officer of the National army, in 
relation to something I had said of the reported position taken by Stonewall 
.Tackson, during a council of war, the night after the army of the Potomac 
crossed the Rappahannock and suffered terribly. A well-known Carolina Colonel 
gave me the direct testimony lacking in other reports, of what Jackson said: 




Honorable James V. Joyner 

Superintendent of Public Instruction of North Carolina 



First North Carolina Reunion 117 

"Washington, D. C, May 10, 1887. 
"My Dear Sir: 

"Touching your statement that Stonewall Jackson favored a night attack 
at Fredericksburg, that statement can be verified by Colonel H. C. Jones, of 
Charlotte, N. C, and now the United States District Attorney for the Western 
Division of North Carolina. He was Colonel of the Twenty-third North Caro- 
lina Confederates, and was OflScer of the Day on the occasion. He told me 
several times (inasmuch as we were on part of that field pitted against each 
other, and after the war met and swapped stories about it) that a council of 
war, he being in waiting, though not in it, at which were Jackson, Lee, and 
others, Jackson lay upon the ground in the tent, in apparent sleep, and as mat- 
ters would be reported to him for opinion would rise on his elbow and say ' drive 
them into the river; do it tonight'. No matter how mad apropos the question, 
he ever gave that response. Finally, he roused up and said, 'I propose to take 
my corps (or division) tonight, have nn- men strip to the waist, fire no shots, 
but charge them with the bayonet into the river'. His idea in stripping his 
men being that in the night they could more easily identify each other in a 
mix-up such as would naturally follow." 

The night Jackson was urging his plan, I was in Fredericksburg with Gen- 
eral Burnside at his headquarters, the house of the Mayor of the city, and I have 
thought occasionally that if Jackson 's suggestion had been accepted and the 
assault ordered made, it might have been a souvenir night to me. Lee thought 
Burnside would force a wholesale charge, and that it would be better for the 
Confederates than Jackson's midnight assault with bayonets, and so waited. 
Burnside wanted to do what Lee said he would, but was overruled. 

The last speech made in Cincinnati by Stephen A. Douglas, was late in 1860. 
He, it is little doubted, would have been President instead of Buchanan, if it 
had not been for the Cuban politics in 18.56, with Senator Soule organizing as 
leader. However, if it had happened that Douglas should head the ticket made 
at Cincinnati, Lincolu who was a strong candidate for Vice-President, at Phil- 
adelphia, a few weeks later, might have headed the Kepublican ticket. The 
only speech Abraham Lincoln made in Cincinnati, opened with the expression of 
the very sentiment and some of the words of Lincoln, who, as he was so close to 
Kentucky, said that he loved his native State dearly as any man born on her 
soil, and how friendly to each other were those who lived on the shores of the 
river. The last words Stephen A. Douglas uttered were in the Presidential 
campaign, when worn to illness b}- his excessive labors, and almost unable to 
make himself heard, even on the stand from which he spoke at Cincinnati. 
Governor Willard, of Indiana, occupied the time. In opening his speech, the 
Governor remarked he was sorry Douglas could not have the voice of Willard, 
or Willard the head of Douglas. The language of the "little giant" was "he 
especially regretted because he could not make himself heard. There was no 
place in America he would rather address the people than in Cincinnati, 
because nowhere else did the people know better, how easy and natural it was 
for the North and South to live together in peace". It is not too late to learn 
that lesson, and perfect the problem of pacification. 

The special message of your honorable and distinguished Governor to the 
General Assembly of North Carolina, contains this passage: 

"Our sons and daughters abroad have not forgotten the State, nor has the 
State forgotten them. We want to see them face to face, and learn what they 
have done abroad and show them what we are doing here." 



118 First North Carolina Reunion 

I am flattered to be identified with a suggestion of value in telegraphing 
when there was a mistake as to my being a son of the State, in claiming to be a 
grandson. The grandsons and great-grandsons will, I am sure, feel an interest 
in the Eeunions of the nonresidents of North Carolina as the commemorations 
come with the years. The road is wide, public opinion formed, and the fashion 
fixed. Next to the house of the fathers is that of the '•grandfathers; and 
your invitation will be a command. Meeting you face to face, reciprocating 
the spirit of welcome your Governor gives, this is a day of happy greetings. Be 
assured of good-will for the stayers in the State, of the grandchildren, whose 
homes are beyond your borders, that their hearts are yours. The memories of 
the people are the true stories of nations and are priceless possessions. "Blood 
is thicker than water." May our children and children's children stand side 
by side, hand in hand, friends, fellow citizens, lovers to the latest generation, 
while the ages on ages uphold and unroll, the proud histories and destinies they 
■nherit — for all our commonwealths, and above all, our common country. 



Address by Mr. R. M. Hartley, of Indianapolis, Ind. 

Mr. Robert Madison Hartley, of Indianapolis, Ind., spoke next. He 
appeared as the representative of the largest delegation sent to the 
Reunion from any State. lie declared that he was nothing of a 
speaker, but, nevertheless, made one of the best speeches of the daj'. 
He said: 

Back in the fifties, while I was a young man, I clerked in T. J. Paterick's 
drug store, in Greensboro, which was on the lot where John Barker's store now 
stands; and it makes me very sad to find that only three of those who used to 
assemble at the drug store are now left among the living. Now before I go 
further, I want to express thanks (I feel that it would be safe to say of a major- 
ity of the best people of the State of Indiana, as the State is largely populated 
by descendants of Carolina) to the North Carolinians, and especially to the 
people of Greensboro, for the trouble, expense, and especially the hospitable 
manner in which they have entertained the non-residents, who fill many of the 
important offices of both the State and counties; and quite a number of Caro- 
lina's descendants are to be found in high positions as teachers and principals 
of the schools all over the State. 

I am more than elated to find such an improvement in the system and 
schools in this my native State over what it was when I first started out in life 
for myself as an old-field school teacher. I taught in the poorly-lighted old-time 
log schoolhouses at Bull Eun and Mulberry Grove, near Jamestown, Black Jack, 
Gray's Schoolhouse, and other places in Southern Guilford, before the war; 
when the pupils sat on slabs from the sawmills, with legs in them for seats, 
without desks, and but a wide shelf from the back wall of the hoxise to write on. 
I am more than pleased to find the great improvement made in every way in the 
Old North State, and especially on the line of education. In the cities and 
towns, everywhere I have been, I find up-to-date graded schools and good school- 
houses all over the country and in many places up-to-date country graded school- 
houses. Besides, I have seen some of these graded schoolhouses under 
conatiiiction, and hear of many more going up. The best feature of all 




Mr. R. M. Hartley 

of Indiana 



First North Carolina Reunion 119 

is these schools are and will be taught by efficient teachers from the higher 
schools of the State, and mainly from the State Normal and Industrial Col- 
lege here at Greensboro, the leading institution of the kind in the South. 
Now all I find lacking to successfully educate the coming generations of the 
State is a similar compulsory education law to what we have in Indiana. The 
people, some of them, would kick hard, same as they did there; but they soOn 
would get over that, in the same manner as they do with all good laws. Again 
allow me to express thanks for the Reunion. I believe that it has come to stay, 
and I hope that we may have a similar entertainment to this Reunion in Indi- 
ana, and I assure you that there are enough of Carolinians and their descendants 
who will gladly entertain all Tarheels who will come, where they will be claimed 
as cousins by the Carolinians and their descendants; and I assure you that we 
will treat you as brothers and sisters if you will visit the Hoosier State. 

As time is limited, I will wind up by saying that it is a sad thought, but 
nevertheless true, that we will all never meet again in this life; but I hope that 
we will all so live as to be prepared to meet in the great reunion on the shores 
of endless felicity. 



Address by Honorable Jos. M. Dixon, of Montana 

Mr. Chairman, Fellow North Carolinians, both Past and Present: 

The thought came to me yesterday, at the Opera House in Greensboro, when 
the different speakers were telling of their love and veneration for North Caro- 
lina, that if these proceedings were changed into an ordinary County Fair, that 
I would be entitled to the blue ribbon. For while some of the speakers had 
traveled three hundred, some five, and a few six or eight hundred miles in order 
to participate in these proceedings, I had spent five days and had traveled three 
thousand miles in order to be present here todaj'. And more than that — 
I had brought with me my wife and three little half-breed Tarheels, in order 
that they might here today receive the first degree in the Ancient and Accept- 
able Order of Tarheels. 

And when I heard these gentlemen telling of the North Carolina Societies 
which they had organized in their different towns, I remembered, that in my 
own town in Montana, seven years ago, when we didn't have enough North 
Carolinians to form charter members of a North Carolina Society, we organized 
a society composed exclusively of people born south of the Mason and Dixon 
line. But when we came to name it, we at first had considerable difficulty. We 
couldn't call it a North Carolina or a Virginia or a Missouri Society, lor fear of 
hurting the feelings of the other fellows; so finally we compromised the matter 
by calling it the ' ' 'Possum Club ' '. Every Christmas we give a regular old- 
fashioned Southern dinner, and we send down South for the materials for our 
bill of fare, and we have 'possum and sweet potatoes, crackling cornbread and 
persimmon pudding, and hominy and catfish. And I am sorry to say that last 
Christmas some of the members, who were more convivial in their nature than 
the rest of us, indulged in something that we used to call applejack. 

Here, today, from whatever State we may have come — notwithstanding 
the accident of present location — all of us here asembled are North Carolinians. 

To me it is pleasing that those of you who have remained behind, loyal sons 
and daughters of the old North State who have not been tempted away from 



120 First Xorth Carolina Reunion 

her borders by the will-o '-the-wisp of fickle fortune, have toilay killed the fatted 
calf and invited your waj-ward brothers to return once again to the home of 
their youth, and bade them put on the robes of Carolina hospitality and feast 
once again at your bounteous tables. 

And, judging from the number of expatriated Tarheels who are present 
here, I should judge that your kind invitations have not been overlooked by 
many of those by whom they were received. 

I wouldn 't be so unkind to my fellow visitors as to insinuate anything sinis- 
ter as to the reasons why so many of us have taken our departure from the land 
of our forefathers — but when I see the multitude that have returned in response 
to your summons, I am reminded of Private John Allen's experience before the 
Arkansas Legislature some months ago, as related by himself: 

He says that sometime last winter, when the Louisiana Purchase Exposition 
Committee, of which he is a member, was making heroic efforts to induce the 
different State Legislatures to make State appropriations for the Exposition, 
that it was determined by the Commission to send Mr. Allen down to Arkansas, 
to see what he could do with the Legislature then in session at Little Rock. 
When he arrived there, and had been introduced to many of the members, he 
found that a great many of them were from his own State of Mississippi. When 
the two houses had met in joint session to hear what Mr. Allen might say on the 
subject, thinking to somewhat ingratiate himself with them, he remarked that 
he had been surprised to discover that so many members present were from his 
own State — Mississippi. And while he was glad to meet so many of his old 
friends and neighbors again, it did cause him sorrow to know that so many of 
them had left the State of their nativity. He referred to the past proud history 
of Mississippi, and her boundless resources awaiting development, and thought 
possibly they had made a mistake in emigrating; for he wanted to assure them, 
confidentially, that if they had staid and stood trial, that most of them would 
have been acquitted. 

And I understand that the failure of the .\rkansas Legislature to make any 
appropriation for the St. Louis Fair is by some of the Commission unkindly 
attributed to Mr. Allen 's unfortunate speech. 

But I hardly think it fair to assume that Mr. Allen 's intimation of the 
reasons for the increased emigration from Mississippi to Arkansas would apply 
in the case of the ex-Carolinians present here today. (Governor Aycock says 
he will pardon you, anyway.) 

But I have found it to be true in my own experience — that meeting with 
former residents of my own native State, scattered up and down the length and 
breadth of the whole countrj- from Maine to California, it is not best, some- 
times, to press them too closely as to the reasons for their having left one of 
the fairest sections on God's footstool to tackle the uncertainties of life else- 
where. Especially have I found this true if my fellow North Carolinian hap- 
pens to hail from the mountain counties; and more especially Wilkes or Yadkin. 
T well remember a gentleman who came into my office two or three years ago, 
to consult me about a matter that seemed to be causing him considerable mental 
worry. He was a tall, six foot fellow, very sparely built, angular and wiry, 
with a dark and drooping mustache, slouch hat, and had the general appearance of 
not being on very intimate terms with the barber. I soon found he was from 
North Carolina, and consequently felt interested in both himself and his cause. 
He informed me that he was from the "State" of Wilkes, N. C. T asked him 
the nature of his case, but before unfolding his troubles, I noticed that he was 
nervous. He would get up from the chair; go to the door; look up and down 




Honorable Joseph M. Dixon, of Montana 

Representative in Fifty - Eighth Congress 



First North Carolina Reunion 121 

the hall to see that no one was listening. Then he told me his troubles. He 
said that he had been away from Wilkes going on two years. That he had had 
some trouble down there with ' ' the Revenues ' ', as he put it, and that for his 
own peace of mind and to save Judge Boyd the unnecessary expense of litigat- 
ing his troubles with Uncle Sam, he had concluded to hit the trail (as we say 
out West). He had come to western Montana, and for some months had been 
employed on a ranch there; but some time before, he said, he had observed such 
a nice secluded little clear mountain stream, hid away in the Bitter Root Moun- 
tains, that was so appropriate to his old-time business, that the homesick feel- 
ing came over him so strongly, that he just couldn't resist the temptation to 
rig him up a little six-gallon home-made still and manufacture a little of the 
genuine unstamped ' ' mountain dew ' '. It seemed that some neighboring ranch- 
man had discovered his outfit, and that a special agent from Salt Lake had come 
up and destroyed.it. The old-time habit acquired in old North Carolina was too 
strong for his moral nature, even in far-off, moral, law-abiding Montana. 

But the North Carolinian, abroad or at home, must not be judged by the 
funny stories of the moonshiner, as outsiders are sometimes prone to do. 

Not because I am a North Carolinian; not because we are here visiting, and 
want to say something nice and pleasing to our hosts; but because I believe it 
to be a fact, and one that is capable of demonstration, I believe the pure type 
of the old-time, liberty-loving, God-fearing American can come nearer being 
found here in North Carolina than anywhere else in America today. To start 
with, we had the base upon which to build the superstructure. 

Excepting the poor white settlers that drifted over the Virginia border line 
two hundred years ago, when Carolina was the frontier of the Virginia settle- 
ments, the colonists who settled the State, and from whom we sprung, were the 
best blood of all Europe. The English and Huguenot settlements along the 
coast, the Scotch Highlanders along the Cape Fear, the German Moravian and 
the Pennsylvania Quakers in Central Carolina, and the Scotch-Irish blood of the 
central and western portions of the State, all give a strain to Carolina blood 
that should make us more than proud of our splendid lineage. 

Before the advent of the railroad — cut off as we were from commercial 
activity by the chain of sand-banks along our eastern coast — her industrial life 
had not gone forward with the same degree of activity as had some of her sister 
States; but from what I have seen of the wonderful growth and development 
here in the past twelve years, I of truth believe that she is at the threshold of 
a tremendous development. 

Leaving my own self entirely out of the discussion, I think all of us will 
agree that the one great drain on her resources, and one of the drawbacks to 
her development has been (but I am happy to say is not at the present time) 
the steady stream of emigration that has constantly flowed from her borders. 
For fifty years prior to the Civil War, thousands upon thousands of her best 
citizens left the State for the free States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and else- 
where, on account of their feeling against slavery. 

Seventeen years ago I was a student at the Quaker College at Richmond, 
Ind. I remember on one occasion there we took a poll of the students to ascer- 
tain the State of their parents' nativity. Out of about three hundred students, 
some two hundred and seventy claimed North Carolina as the native State of 
their fathers or mothers. The whole great Northwest is today thickly studded 
with settlements of North Carolinians and their children. I noticed not long 
since, in the census reports of 1900, that scattered through the States of the 
Union, and mostly in the West, were three hundred and thirty thousand native- 

K N. C. R.—IX 



122 First North Carolina Reunion 

born citizens of North Carolina. I venture to say that, counting native-born 
Carolinians and the children and grandchildren of native-born, there are 
today outside of North Carolina more Tarheels than there are within her 
borders. Another thing: Wherever you find them, they are good, law-abiding 
citizens. 

A Major-General of the Army told me the other day that the finest speci- 
mens of manhood, and the best soldiers in the regular army today, were 
recruited from the central and western portion of North Carolina. 

In commerce and education, finance and politics, the North Carolinian who 
has emigrated will generally be found, to use a football slang expression, "hit- 
ting the line hard". 

The next Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States was 
a poor Quaker bo}-, bom within gunshot of the platform on which we stand. 

I believe in North Carolina; and I believe in her people, and their immedi- 
ate future greatness. I am glad I am one myself. But if I had a sermon to 
preach to you today, I would sum it up in the one sentence — try and be a little 
more tolerant and charitable towards your neighbors' views of things. I may 
have been mistaken, but as far as my own self was concerned I never would 
have left my own native State, one that I loved and still love with all my heart, 
had I not at least felt that there was a dominant, intolerant, political spirit in 
control that brooked no questioning of its imperious mandates. I think it is 
the only thing that today stands between North Carolina and the achievement 
of a splendid career for her and her people. I say this, not as an outsider, but 
as one of you. 

In conclusion, in the words of Judge William Gaston: 

" * * Carolina, Heaven's blessings attend her! 
While we live we will cherish, protect, and defend her. 
Though the scorner may sneer at, and witlings defame her, 
Our hearts swell with gladness whenever we name her". 



Address by President E. A. Alderman 

Of Tulane University, Louisiana. 

I have come a long journey to be with you today, my dear friends. There 
were duties which held me so fast that I feared I might not be able to come at 
all until Sunday; and believe me, it was a heart-breaking thought, for my mind 
played unceasingly about this scene — these faces which I knew would be here, 
thrilling with the spirit of fellowship and good cheer, and this impressive plain 
which I remember so well, touched on grass and leaf and bough with the solemn 
beauty of the dying year. I stood on a spur of the Monadnock Mountains in 
far-away New Hampshire this summer, and watched with interest the fires, 
which had been kindled on the mountain tops, gleaming welcome to the sons of 
that State returning to their old home. It seemed a hard thing that I should 
not be among my own at such an hour; and I am right glad of heart that I am 
here to render thanks to God, with my brothers, that it was our fortune to have 
been born in North Carolina; to greet the tender and lofty spirit that animates 
the old commonwealth today; and to have sight of the heights of power and 
achievement toward which the old home is forging its way. 




I*i'esidc:il: E. A. Altlciinan, of Tulano L'nivorsity, Louisiana 

Former Presitleut of tlie I'liiversitv of North Carolina 



First North Carolina Reunion 123 

The words that I am about to speak today shall be few in number, and sim- 
ple ones of gratitude and affection and faith rather than of analysis or criticism 
or didactics. I have known some of the great emotions of life — love and ambi- 
tion and pride of toil and plain human sorrow — but I know of no emotion 
stronger and more enduring than the emotion which binds you and me for all 
the years to this dear old community. I have, indeed, learned to love the good 
people with whom my daj'S are now cast. It is a region of charm and gracious- 
ness and manliness and many virtues. It is a happiness to serve such people; 
but as the grown-up man, having his battle with life, finds himself seeing in the 
face and life of his old father a beauty and dignity and a strength, which had, 
perhaps, not revealed themselves to him in his childhood, so, I think, the wan- 
derer who has strayed from his old home has given to him a power to see the 
philosophy and deeper meaning of the life he has left. It is worth while to be 
expatriated if one may gain this new sense. I see in a new light the wholesome- 
ness of North Carolina, the rare and quaint qualities of its humor, giving out 
the odor of the woods and of quiet life. It may seem a trivial thing, but it is a 
serious loss to be away from the range of good North Carolina stories. They are 
human to the core. I treasure as precious the few that I know; and I hereby 
beg to hear any that may be in your minds — especially Dr. Battle's mind. I 
see its sense of justice; its patient tolerance, until tolerance becomes unmanly; 
its grim steadfastness; its conservative progressiveness; and its tender con- 
straining power to make of a man once a North Carolinian a North Carolinian 
forever. 

The greatest single acquisition of North Carolina since I left the State 
is a sense of unity, a realization that community effort is the secret of growth, 
accompanied with a certain toleration of difference of opinion necessary to the 
process of truth-finding. I have learned this and realized this very vividly 
since I came here to this Reunion, and it gladdens my heart; for the power to 
unite is the power of the highly civilized one. Here I see less and less of East 
and West, of mountain and seaboard in this State, and more of North Carolina 
as a whole expression of common purpose. It reminds me of a story of an old 
English farmer who had been listening to a sermon by Bishop Howe. He went 
up to the Bishop after the sermon, and said, "Bishop, I certainly am glad I 
came today. I certainly have lamed something this day." "I am glad 
you've been benefited, my good man", said the Bishop, somewhat complacently; 
."wliat have you learned?" "Well, I'll tell you", said the farmer, "I lamed 
that Sodom and Gomorrah was places. Burn me, ef I aint been thinking for 
twenty year that they was husband and wife. ' ' My mental processes have just 
been the reverse of this. For twenty years I have thought of North Carolina 
as sections. Today I see that it is one region, married in unity of purpose. 

I used to think over the dear old State, because it wouldn 't do what I, for- 
sooth, wanted it do, as fast as I, forsooth, thought it ought to do it. That fretting 
was not wholly unworthy; but I realize now that it was a mere waste of nervous 
force incident to the tumults of emotional youth. The old State, immobile and 
unhasting, was making up its mind. It has now made its mind. The State of 
North Carolina has been born into the serene consciousness of its strength, its 
responsibility, its proper part in the great democratic movement of modern 
society. I go nowhere. North or South, that I do not hear praise of North 
Carolina. If I go to some community in the Southwest struggling to adjust 
itself to democratic needs in education, I am sure to hear some speaker say, 
"Look at North Carolina. See the courage and resource which she is display- 
ing in this great problem." My dear friends, you may be sure that it makes 



l--t First NortJt Carolina Reioiion 

good music to my ears to hear this, especially since I know it to be God's truth. 
It is tlie same if the endeavor be to advance some community in industrial 
efficiency. The great North Carolina leaders are called by name, and their 
achievements recited. It is the same if the question be some question of racial 
entanglement or human justice. North Carolina's leadership is adverted to, and 
praised. I do not believe the State has bulked so largely in the public imagina- 
tion in the two hundred and forty years of its history. Let us have sober pride 
in this; and let us give sober praise to those who have brought it about. The 
struggle of this State after statehood and self-consciousness is one of the most 
interesting stories of the great Republic. It is right to honor the Hoopers and 
Harveys and Caswells and Johnstons and Ashes who guided the footsteps of the 
young State in its dim beginnings. Honor is due to the Grahams and Mangums 
and Badgers who gave dignity and stability to its growing youth. All honor 
should go to the Vances and Pettigrews and Battles and Ransoms and Jarvises 
who bore the burden of war and reconstruction. Let us not forget, however, to 
praise and honor the fighters of the present, nor to strengthen with sweet appro- 
val the hands of those whose work has made all this possible. You know who 
they are. If I were to name them I should begin with Charles B. Aj'cock, and 
use up all of my time in calling the roll. They are men who are at work in 
education, in manufacturing, in railroads, and in press and pulpit. They are 
men and women who look to the future, while not forgetting the past. They 
are under no sort of bondage. Their passion is for constructiveness; their 
method is education; their faith is in the people; their purpose, as grim and 
stern as any that ever moved their fathers, is to put this State where it belongs 
in this national life of ours; to heal its sectional difEerenecs, to recall its sons 
scattered about the continent and bathe them in just pride of State and home, 
and, finally, to place this State, through training and self-sacrifice, in the front 
of American life and American hope and American destiny. It is the work of 
men and patriots. It will demand the exercise of faith and patience and 
enthusiasm and energy and love. God give them strength for it. Let us mor- 
tals, and brothers to them, give help and love. 

I have said I did not come to criticize or analyze or reform my Alma Mater, 
and T apply the noble endearment as well to the State at large as to that dear 
spot yonder among the hills of Orange. Neither have I come to rhapsodize or to 
revel in self-satisfaction or vain boasting. That, perhaps, has been one of our 
faults — the tendency to over-praise and over-rate the little man, to over-esti- 
mate the unmeaning thing, to see ourselves abnormally and provincially as 
unrelated to the great national movement. The spirit may well be pardoned 
today. It is a day when the heart flows like the sea — especiall}- the heart of 
one who went away but yesterday — toward these well-remembered faces, glow- 
ing with sympathy and friendliness — men whose love was won and to whom 
love was given, amid the unselfish dreams of golden youth. But the supreme 
thing to do in this world is to see a thing steadily and to see it whole, as 
Matthew Arnold said. The absent, at least, may contribute their perspective, 
and tell how it seems to them. You — may I not say we, for I tried to do my 
share in my day — have done much, but it is the work of the pioneer, and a very 
world of things needs to be done. 

Among American States no better spot exists than this spot upon which to 
work out the problems of a livable and lovable democracy. I thank God for the 
inextinguishable breath of democracy breathed into me by birth in this State. 
By democracy, I mean no party or creed or war-cry, but a blessed spirit which 
wills imperiously to give to every soul a chance to know and be the best. It is 




Honorable H. B. X'anier 

Commissioner of I^abor auii Printing of North Carolina 



First North Carolina Reunion 125 

a narrow view which beholds demoeraey as a mere thing of ruggedness and 
homeliness. It is the business of democracy to make out of itself an aristocracy. 
There is nothing too good for a democracy. Surely its primal needs are strength 
and virtue and simplicity and freedom. Does it not also need beauty and dig- 
nity and grandeur, if you will, and all the things which minister to the spirit? 
Else it perish of vulgar strength. This spirit will not come by observation. One 
can not say !o! here, and lo! there, and the spirit is achieved. It comes by 
obeying the law of things. The law of things is training as a result of sacrifice. 
Sacrifice means vast investment of love, energy, and wealth in human life. 
Twenty years from today North Carolina will be a State of imagination and 
faith in men of all creeds and races and conditions. It will have quadrupled its 
investment in them. Its type of men will be eflScient and knowing, free and 
sympathetic, acquainted with facts, able to do, free to speak, and sympathetic 
with every man's aspirations, whether he be white or black, high or low, bond 
or free. This is democracy; and nothing else is democracy. All history is the 
shifting of the mental and moral moods of nations and communities, and the 
interesting time — the time for men — is the period of shifting. We can see now 
the romantic note of our past, its exaltation of personality, its care for indi- 
viduals ' dignity, its impulses, its enthusiasms, its deep loyalties. We are at 
work upon the note of the future, deciding that it shall be social, collective, 
efficient, sympathetic with all, so that every man may earn a dignity to cherish. 
To bring this about we must spend money and time and heart 's blood, for the 
day of small things is past, and the thing we seek is above all price. The State 
of North Carolina needs just now to realize the supreme value of humanity in 
the mass. All the machinery of her civilization should be for the advancement 
of men in the aggregate, not men in the classes. Is this mere crude optimism ? 
If so, let it go at that. I dare to believe all that I can hope for. I dare to hope 
for all that I can dream. I once dreamed with many others for an eifective 
public school system. That dream is almost true; and the spirit which has made 
it true is the spirit which has made this noble gathering, and which will unite 
the sons of North Carolina all over America for service in her behalf. 

The greatest dreamer this nation has known was Thomas Jefferson, and he 
has been its greatest spiritual force — with his ennobling lesson of faith in men. 
Many of his dreams have come true, and many are yet unfulfilled. Let us dream 
on. and work in our time and place as he did in his earlier day. It can not hurt 
for us to have a vision before our eyes always of this land of our birth and love, 
lovable in its very limitations, and clad from its hard-beset childhood in the 
garments of common-sense and clear manhood — grown strong and majestic and 
spiritual and free — a mighty home of beneficent laws and true democracy, stain- 
less still in honor, fruitful still in noble deeds. 



Address by Rev. A. C. Dixon, D. D., of Boston, Mass. 

It has been said that Israel got out of Egypt in forty-eight hours, but it took 
forty years to get Egypt out of Israel; and a North Carolinian can get out of 
his State in twenty hours, but all time and eternity can never take North Caro- 
lina out of him. 

In some respects, there is no country on this globe that equals in beauty 
the dear Old North State. T have been under Italian skies, but they are not as 
blue to me as the skies of North Carolina. I have stood under no stars as bright 



l'^6 First Xurth Carolina Reunion 

as the stars of North Carolina. I have walked through some of the art galleries 
of Europe, and they have simply suggested the pictures that I carried from the 
top of Mount Mitchell and King's Mountain and other places, more beautiful 
than were ever placed upon canvas by the skill of artist. 

I have gone out of the dear old State rather slowly. I went to Baltimore 
first — half Yankee and half Southron, and then to Brooklyn — not quite so great 
a mixture of the Southron, and then to Boston. (A "B" line, you see.) I 
bring the greetings of Boston. I have met some men up there who have seen 
some of you before. They have assured me that they had some little dealings 
with North Carolina several years ago. And they were a brave lot. 

I live near Plymouth Eock and Bunker Hill; and next year I would like to 
bring about one thousand of the high-minded sons of Massachusetts, that have 
in their texture of character the granitic solidity of Plymouth Hock and Bunker 
Hill monument, down here, and let them see Guilford Battle Ground, and have 
them taught what many of them do not know (or they have forgotten), that 
there was a Southern tea party before there was a Massachusetts tea party, and 
that there was fighting here on the side of liberty before the battle of Lexington 
fired the shot that rang around the world. 

My heart has been stirred as I reread the records of the battle of Guilford. 
We are told that God sent an angel, you know, before the Israelites, as they 
were led by the pillar of fire by day and the pillar of cloud by night; but that 
he sent hornets to look after the Amalekites and the Hittites and the Amorites. 
Now a hornet does not take a person up and lift him out by main force; but 
;iust makes him willing to get out. I hope you see the point. The battle of 
Guilford didn't fling the English out of this country; but it made them willing 
to get out. It was the beginning of the end that gave us the result in the Stars 
and Stripes. 

After one of the great battles of Virginia, a man in blue. Colonel of a 
regiment, was riding across the battlefield, amid the wounded and the dying, 
and, hearing a groan, he went to see what was the matter. There was a Con- 
federate private, mortally wounded. That man in blue got off his hor.se, and 
asked him if he would have a drink of water out of his canteen; and he gave to 
the man in gray the water that quenched his thirst. The man in gray looked up 
into the face of the man in blue, and said, "Do you know how to pray?" He 
said, "Yes, I am a Christian". And they knelt there together with their hands 
upon each other's shoulder, and repeated the Lord's Prayer. For once there 
was no North and no South. There were just two men that had knelt together, 
and their hearts were fused in common sympathy. I thank God that that exper- 
ience is coming to our great country. We may love one part of it better than 
another; yes, I like to find a man that loves his own family a trifle better than 
anybody's else family. If he tells me that he loves every family equally well, 
I do not think he loves any very much; but we have come to a point where, 
fused in a common patriotism, and facing common problems, we can stand 
together and work together until the Stars and Stripes shall mean to the world 
a thousandfold more than they have ever meant in history. 

As I pass across Brooklyn Bridge, I see Bartholdi's statue; and you know 
the best of that statue is its face has the features of his mother, holding out the 
light of liberty; and I can see that light flash across the Atlantic and into 
Africa and into Armenia and all over the earth. This country is teaching the 
world what liberty means. There is one thing that I have learned since I have 
been in Massachusetts, and that is that these Massachusetts and New England 
people are beginninj; to trust the South as they never did before. They are 




Honorable Franeis D. VSinston 

Kx-Jndtje of tlie Superior Court, mid I,ieutenant-C'.nvci imr 



Fii-st North Carolina Reunion 127 

saying, "You have your problems; we have ours. You can settle yours, and 
we'll settle ours. We would like for you to help us in some respects; we'll help 
you, if we can." The difficulties of both are appreciated, and we can stand 
together. 

I went once with a party up Mount Mitchell, nine miles, rising higher and 
higher; and when we got about half-way up, we saw what was a sublime specta- 
cle — a battle of the clouds. The clouds began to break away on one side toward 
the sun in the West, and there was battle between cloud and cloud, until finally 
there was no cloud on the western side at all; and then the battle began to rage 
between light and cloud, battalions of cloud marching up and met on the crest 
by battalions of light. They fought, the white arrows of light piercing the 
black clouds as they came up, until by and by the light conquered; and when 
we stood on the top there stretched out the most magnificent view I ever saw. 
There has been going on a battle in this country, cloud against cloud, and then 
again light on one side and cloud on the other. The day is dawning when the 
clouds will have vanished, and the sunshine of love and fraternity will fill the 
land. 



Remarks of Judge Francis D. Winston, of North Carolina 
and Resolutions Which Were Unanimously Adopted 

The sons of North Carolina, residing in other States, view with 
admiration and gratitude the battlefield of Guilford Courthouse, 
redeemed from waste and oblivion, beautified and decorated by the 
patriotic efforts of the Guilford Battle Ground Company. 

One himdred acres of this historic field, artistically laid off in walks, 
drives, and avenues, and handsomely decorated with twenty-one com- 
pleted monuments, is now the property of the company. The two 
monuments which Congress I'ecently voted as memorials to the bravery 
of Generals Francis Nash and William Lee Da^adson, will soon be 
added to the galaxy of immortal mementoes. The park is a rare blend- 
ing of nature 's majesty and beauty with man 's heroism and devotion ; 
groves of primeval oak, flower-clad meadows, placid lakes, sparjding 
springs, hills and dales, dotted with monuments of heroic dead. It is 
the one battlefield of the revolution which has been reclaimed, 
adorned, and preserved in its entirety. Its history, its heritage, and its 
glory are the common property of the whole country. Across its 
sacred soil the heroic sons of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Marj'land, Virginia, and South Carolina, side by side with North 
Carolinians, fought and died for the freedom of the colonies. On this 
field North* Cai'olinians have cherished the memory of those dead heroes 
of her sister States, who marched to glorious death on her soil and 
helped to drive the British from her borders. 



128 First North Carolina Reunion 

A gallant soldier of the Civil War, General H. V. Boynton, has fitly 
eulogized this park and the patriotic services of those who established 
it : " The vast body of the Revolutionary patriots in the North should 
take notice of this North Carolina work, carried to success without 
commotion, or noise, or tumult, or the sound of saw or hammer. Here 
is a field purchased and paid for, with its history collected and pre- 
served on tablets and monuments. Those who have brought it to suc- 
cess are at the sunset of life. It would be in every sense fitting if the 
National Government should receive its finished work of patriotism 
and provide for its future care." 

The Guilford Battle Ground Association is willing to donate this 
park for perpetual preservation by the National Government. Having 
performed the labors and incurred the expense essential to its creation, 
and feeling that the park is the heritage, not of the State, but of the 
Nation, they will cheerfully resign its guardianship to those to whom 
it belongs. Concurring in these views, the sons of North Carolina, 
residents of other States, now enjoying a Reunion on this battle ground 
do resolve : 

That we cheerfully commend the purpose of the Guilford Battle 
Ground Association to turn over to the National Government the 
patriotic work of preserving this park. 

That we request the Congressional delegations from the vai-ious 
States represented here, to give their active support to any measures 
that may pend in Congress accepting this work, and pledging the 
Government to its completion and preservation. 

That we further ask the Congressional delegations from other States 
to assist in this patriotic endeavor. 

The Guilford Battle Ground Association makes this peace offering 
to the nation in the dawn of the Twentieth Century. AVell may the 
nation receive it, with its treasures of patriotism — emblem of a united 
country, a coimtry based upon those enduring principles of liberty for 
which heroic sons North and South shed their blood on this hallowed 
spot. 



Resolutions Complimentary to the Late Judge David Schenck 

Innnediately before the adjournment of the exercises, General Ran- 
som requested the great audience to hear him for a moment. He spoke 
of the great success of the Reunion, sa.ying the beginning of the move- 
ment had been glorious, its fulfillment had been sublime. The mana- 
gers of the Reunion had performed a great duty to the country, but in 




Honorablf David Scheiu-k, LL. i). 

Kirst President uf the Guilford Battle Ground Conipanv 



First North Carolina Reunion 129 

our just exaltation we had omitted a sacred duty, and he begged the 
attention of the audience to what he had to say. 

We are standing here in the center of the Battlefield of Guilford 
Courthouse, very beautiful, and adorned by art to perpetuate the 
great event. The truth of history must be spoken. For nearly a cen- 
tury the battle of Guilford Courthouse had been shrouded in ignor- 
ance, prejudice, and blunder. A worthy North Carolinian, with great 
labor, at much expense and trouble, has rescued the name of his coun- 
trymen from doubt and misrepresentation. He has gone to the very 
bottom of the facts of the battle ; to its very roots. He has developed 
and demonstrated that the militia of North Carolina did its whole duty 
on that day in obedience to the orders of the Commander in Chief. 
He has vindicated their title to honor and immortal gratitude, and has 
removed every cloud from their great brave names; and he. General 
Ransom, should ask this great audience to resolve that its thanks were 
eminently due to the late Honorable David Schenck for his patriotic, 
diligent, and successful labors in presenting the true history of the 
battle, and in demonstrating and proving the faithfulness and bravery 
of North Carolina on that field. 

He would, therefore, ask for a vote upon his resohition returning 
thanks to Judge Schenck, and it was unanimously so decided. 

Resolved, That this convention puts upon record its profound con- 
viction of the inestimable service which the late Honorable David 
Schenck has rendered to historical tnith, in vindicating and establish- 
ing by incontrovertible evidence and unanswerable argument that the 
soldiers of North Carolina did their whole duty in the battle of Guil- 
ford Courthouse and that we will cherish all gratitude and honor to 
the memory of this devoted patriot. 

General Ransom then asked Dr. Moore, of Richmond, to conclude 
the exercises with the benediction, and it was done.* 



* The reader will share regret with the editor that he has beeu unable to .secure for 
publication in this volume a copy of the notable and profound address of the brilliant non- 
resident North Carolinian, Mr. Waller H. Page, the learned and able editor of "The World's 
Work ", He looked the part of the careful, hard student that he is. On this occasion, he sjave 
his hearers, as he always does, something to think about. He spoke like a man who has a fixed 
purpose in life, and is battling for a goal. Among other things he said : 

" North Carolinians leave the State because they belong to that world-conquering race. It 
is a good thing for the United States. The outside world needs what we can give ; and we have 
plentv of it to spare. 

''' There are but two sources from which the Americans spring nowadays. We have one. 
and New Englanrl the other. There are two kinds of men in this world ; those who lead, and 
those who are willing to be led. We can be the leaders. It is mainly a matter of blood, of will. 
You are beginning to find the way, through education and industry. We will fulfill the greatest 
destiny that we have the good fortune to be here for." 

It is also a source of regret that Senator Jeter C. Pritchard, who responded in a happy and 
eloquent impromptu speech, had not reduced the same to manuscript. As he came forward, the 
great throng of people accorded him a generous and enthusiastic ovation, and his declarations 
that this occasion and the works of Greensboro would ultimately bring government appropria- 
tions and protection to the Guilford Battle Ground touched a responsive chord and evoked 
prolonged applause. — Editor 



Brilliant Climax 



131 




Honorable S. L. Patterson 

Commissioner of Agriculture 



Brilliant Climax 



The climax — and a fitting one it was — to the whole occasion was the 
"Reception", held from 9.30 p. m. to 12 m., in the spacious and impos- 
ing Smith Memorial Building, on Church Street, on Tuesday, under 
the auspices of the Ladies' Reception Committee of the Reunion. The 
building itself, beautiful in interior and exterior, was a revelation to 
those who had not seen it. There is no bviilding of the kind in the 
whole South that approaches it in beauty of design, in the I'ichness of 
architectural expression, and in the good taste and marvelous con- 
venience of its every appointment. Under its soft lights, and beneath 
the myriad forms of beauty that found expression in banner, streamer, 
bunting, flag, flower, palm, and fern, there was gathered the most nota- 
ble and the most interesting assembly of North Carolinians, I'esident 
and non-resident, to be found in the annals of the Old North State. It 
was there that the real joy of the Reunion beamed in the face of the 
handsome men and in the smile of the beautiful women, who met, and 
felt as they met the .joyous and luireserved freedom of home. It was 
there that everybody really felt at home, and realized what home-com- 
ing meant. The hours, freighted with genuine delight and with the 
free, joyous spirit of reunion, sped and fled until the Chairman of the 
Board of Managers requested the Governor to make "the farewell 
speech". The Governor, moved by the generous applause, in his own 
inimitable style responded with speech that touched and thrilled. 
Following this, the audience joined in our glorious State song; after 
which Rev. Dr. W. W. Moore, of Richmond, Va., offered the following 
resolutions, which were warmly seconded by Mr. John Wilbur Jenkins, 
of Baltimore : 

Resolved, By the non-resident natives of North Carolina in attend- 
ance upon the first Reunion of the sons and daughters of the Old North 
State at Greensboro, that their most hearty thanks are due and are 
hereby tendered : 

First. To the General Assembly and Governor of the State, and to 
the municipality of Greensboro, and the various organizations of her 
citizens, for the cordial invitation to gather again around the ancestral 
hearthstone ; 

133 



134 First North Carolina Reunion 

Second. To the reception committee on the part of the State, com- 
posed of executive, legislative, and judicial officers: the United States 
Senators and Representatives in Congress and judges ; to the reception 
committee on the part of the county of Guilford ; the reception commit- 
tee on the part of the city of Greensboi'o; the ladies' reception com- 
mittee : and the local committees on transportation, decorations, badges, 
information and registration, program and arrangements, luncheon at 
the Battle Ground, and the press committee, for innumerable courtesies 
and kind attentions ; 

Third. To the raih'oads which have given a special rate for this 
occasion ; 

Fourth. To our venerable and courtly presiding officer. General 
Ransom, and to speakers who have welcomed us in words which will 
warm our hearts as long as we live ; 

Fifth. To the teachers and students of the State Normal and 
Industrial College for Women, and the Greensboro Female College, for 
the delightful and instructive entertainments given us on Monday 
evening; and to the institutions and organizations which have estab- 
lished headquarters with open doors at various places throughout the 
city; 

Sixth. To the patriotic and enterprising Guilford Battle Ground 
Company ; and 

Last. With the most grateful appreciation which it is possible for 
us to express, to the superb board of managers of the North Carolina 
Reunion Association and their incomparable chairman, Dr. Charles D. 
Melver, to whom we feel that we are indebted for an epoch-making 
occasion in the history of North Carolina. 

These resolutions were unanimously adopted, after which Rev. Dr. 
Moore, at the request of Governor* Aycock, pronounced the benediction. 

And thus ended our great Reunion, which is pronounced a great 
success; which will go into the history of the Old North State as a 
glorious occasion : and which in its far-reaching influence exceeds the 
fondest hopes of its most ardent friends and promoters. 



Voices of the Absent 



135 




Honorable James K. Boyd 

United States District Judge 



Voices of the Absent 



Praftical Results 

One of the practical results of the Reunioii movement has been to 
show the mutual advantages of organization of non-residents into North 
Carolina Societies in our larger cities and elsewhere. By such organi- 
zation these at home and those abroad are enrolled to keep in frater- 
nal touch and to see and know more of each other. It is helpful in a 
thousand ways. The good in one stimulates the best in the other. The 
one at home is inspired by the success of the one abroad. The non- 
resident is proud of the achievements of the Tarheel on his native heath. 
These organizations bring us together and foster a fi-aternal feeling 
and helpful spirit. 

Thousands of letters of the following import have been received at 
headquarters, showing that the object of the movement, which was not 
only to foster a beautiful fraternal feeling but to effect a thorough 
organization of North Carolinians at home, has been attained : 

"As non-resident natives of North Carolina, we, the undersigned, 
now resident in Colorado, send greeting. 

"We commend you most heartily in calling this notable gathering 
of the sons and daughters of the Old North State. Loyal they all are 
to their native soil, and whatever concerns the welfare of the State that 
gave them birth is not without interest to them. 

' ' This reunion will be productive of great good in that it will show 
the rapid strides that the State is making along industrial and educa- 
tional lines, and you who are carrying on the splendid work will gather 
new inspiration. 

"Though absent in person, we are, one and all, with you in spirit 
on these notable days, and may they be the beginning of an annual 
gathering that shall unite more closely still all the sons and daughters 
of North Carolina. 

"J. M. Canada, Denver, Col., Guilford County, U. N. C. ; Cora 
May Gwinn, Denver, Col., Rockingham County; J. B. Tarris, 
Denver, Col., Granville Coimty; Kemp B. Stephens, Denver, 
Col., Orange County ; Chas. B. Livingstone, Denver, Col., Hen- 

F. N. C. R.—X 137 



138 First North Carolina Reunion 

derson County; A. R. Gates, Denver, Col., Henderson County; 
W. H. Gill, Denver, Col., Iredell County; Chas. E. Ward, Den- 
ver, Col, Wake County; R. P. Mills, Clothe, Col., Madison 
County; J. B. Killian, Delta, Col., Madison County; C. R. Os- 
borne, Delta, Col., Madison County; W. 0. Temple, Cripple 
Creek, Col., Warren County; Mrs. Suffner, Dewey, Col., Wake 
Coiinty; Roderick Melver, Denver, Col., Moore County; David 
Sellars, Hayden, Col., Moore County." 

In addition to these letters expressing the fraternal phase, the more 
practical one of organization has been developed by the formation of 
North Carolina Societies in New York, Baltimore, Richmond. Philadel- 
phia, Norfolk, Atlanta, Macou, New Orleans, Chicago, Seattle, and 
several other cities. 



Extradt from Letter of Woodrow Wilson 

President qf Princeton University 

It would afford me the most genuine pleasure to attend the North 
Carolina Reunion if I were not tied fast on the very days for which it 
is set. I have imperative engagements on those days, and can not go 
a foot from home. 

I have no doubt that the Reunion will be the best possible success, 
and wish yon the greatest satisfaction in the whole matter. 

Very cordially yours, 

Woodrow Wilson. 



Extrad from Letter of Speaker Cannon 

Your favor of the 22d instant, covering invitation to the Reunion of 
Nou-Resident and Resident North Carolinians at Greensboro, on Octo- 
ber 12th and 13th, received. Please accept my thanks for the same. 
I very much regret that my engagements are such that it is not possi- 
ble for me to be present. I really wish I could be. 

Hoping that the Reunion may be a perfect success, and thanking 
you again for the courtesy of the invitation, I am, 

With respect, etc., yours truly, 

J. G. Cannon. 




Honorablf Joseph (t. Caiiium, ot" Illinois 
speaker of the House 



First North Carolina Reunion 139 

Extrad from Letter of Representative Small, to Dr. Mclver 

Those who have worked in the public service simply in the per- 
formance of a civic duty to the community and the State Imow some- 
thing of the pleasure which is derived from the satisfactory perform- 
ance of such duty, and yet expressions of recognition naturally add in 
some degree to the feeling of satisfaction and reward. 

Ever since I left Greensboro this week I have felt an impulse to 
write you, and tell you how much I as a citizen appreciate the service 
to the State which has been rendered by yourself and by the other 
unselfish men and women who conceived and brought to a successful 
conclusion the Reunion of non-resident North Carolinians at Greens- 
boro. In this, I am sure, I must reflect the sentiment, not only of our 
eastern section, but of the entire State. These occasions can not be 
successful except by the united effort of the many who are willing to 
contribute something of their time and ability and means for the pub- 
lic good, and every opportunity for the exercise of these qualities of 
good citizenship makes our people stronger and better equipped for 
the next demand upon them. Not the least result which has come from 
this Reunion will be the tendency to strike down the barriers of pro- 
vincialism which have surrounded our State, and to place us well along 
in the ranks of other States, whose people are engaged in doing things, 
and constitute a factor in the thoughts, the ideals, and the progress of 
the country. I am, 

Very sincerely, 

John H. Small. 



Extradb from Letter of Samuel Hill, Esq. 

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your kind invitation to be present 
in Greensboro on October 12 and 13, 1903. I regret more than 
I can tell you my inability to be present. Engagements will detain 
me ; those which I can not break. 

October 8th and 9th I shall be presiding over the Washington Good 
Roads Association, Spokane, Wash., and later at the banquet of 
the Harvard Club. In speaking of good roads, at once the thought 
comes to my mind that North Carolina, which leads so often, is well 
to the front in good roads. 

At the next Reunion, if advised in time of the date, I shall certainly 
make an effort to be present. Looking over the list of those who are 
to receive visitor's I see many of my kinsfolk, but none of my own name. 
It must be that there is a place somewhere for a Hill family in North 



140 First North Carolina Reunion 

Carolina. I believe the first time that the name Samuel Hill appears 
is where he was arrested in the year 1681, when he refused to bear arms 
in Muster-field. That my own exit from the State was not attended 
by similar results, is probably due to the fact that we traveled by 
night. 

I should like to be with you and sing the glories of the Old North 
State. 

Mr. Josiah Collins, Judge Albertson, and myself have often dis- 
cussed the formation of a North Carolina Society in the State of 
Washington, and it may interest you to know that there are probably 
as many people from the State of North Carolina in the State of 
Washington as there are from any other single State. If the formation 
of such an organization could in any waj' be affiliated with your organ- 
ization, will you advise us? 

Although we are far away I never have met a North Carolinian 
that was not proud of the fact that he or she came from the Old North 
State. And though other ties have been formed no soil as that which 
gave us birth is so dear to us. 

O, sunny South, land of our birth, to sing thy praise were vain, 

The mists arise and dim ovir eyes; our heart's with thee again. 

With thee again? It ne'er has left thee — though the wide world's 

wandered o'er. 
And the hand that once caressed thee, presses thine, and asks no more. 

Very truly yours, 

Samuel Hill, 

Seattle, Wash. 



Letter from Hannis Taylor 

Carlton Hotel, Pall ilall. London. 
October 4, 1903. 
Charles D. Mclver, Esq., Chairman, 
Greensboro, N. C. 
Just a line, my dear Mr. Chairman, to tell you how deeply I regret 
my inability to be with yoii at the Reunion now so near at hand. The 
older I grow, the prouder I become of my native State of North Caro- 
lina. Wherever I am in England I am continually contrasting the 
genius of the people here with that of the people among whom I was 
born. There is no State in the Union, pei-haps, whose substructure is 
more purely English than that of North Carolina. The main admix- 




HoMDrahlc Haniiis TayUn* 
Ex-Minister lo Spain 



First North Carolina Reunion 141 

tuiv has been with other peoples from the British Isles, notably the 
Scotch. The outcome has been a homogeneous community, with high 
ideals of morality, religion, government, and law. Thus armed, many 
of oiir sons who have gone forth into the world have been able to make 
their impress upon other communities. 

You do well to assemble in order to honor those who have had the 
greatest success in that regard. Your action will incite others to still 
higher endeavor. No matter how long a man may be severed from the 
land of his birth, no matter what he may achieve in the home of his 
adoption, he is ever whispering to himself, in the penetralia of his 
heart — what verdict has been rendered upon my life by my own 
people? And as the end approaches he is ever comforting himself 
with the hope that some day he may "return and die at home at last". 
Please remember me tenderly to all of my people who still remember 
me. 

Faithfully yours, in love for the Old North State, 

H-usTNis Taylor. 



Extradt from Letter of Bishop Fitzgerald, of Nashville, Tenn. 

A previous engagement, accepted conditionally, will not allow me 
the pleasure of being with you in actual bodily presence at your 
Reunion, October 12th and 13th, but I will be there in spirit, and will 
send my benedictions by the instantaneous line that is swifter than 
the Marconi wireless telegraph, when hearts are tuned for fellowship. 
With love for everybody in the dear Old North State, and every inch 

of her soil, I am. 

Affectionately and sincerely, 

0. P. Fitzgerald. 



This Letter Is Too Good To Be Withheld 

Forestelle, St. Charles County, Mo. 
October 5, 1903. 
To the Honorable Board of Managers : 

I, John Smith, was born in Orange county, on Haw River, near 
Murphy's Mills. My father went to the war of 1812, when I was 
twenty-eight days old, and died in Norfolk, Va. Mother lived there 
about ten years, and then she moved up to Guilford. Was raised on 
South Buffalo: married Robert Reese on the Alamance, a noble step- 
father. 



142 First Nortli Carolina Reunion 

I lived at home sixteen years, then started for myself. I tried 
farming three years; found it slow. 

And now I come to your Greensboro. Learned the tailor's trade 
with Andrew Weatherly, and made my start in this woi'ld at that. 

I now must leave Greensboro. When I bought my stage ticket I 
had $2.00 in my pocket, my own money. It is not worth while to go 
into details. I found myself in Leaksville, on Dan River. Stayed 
there nearly two years ; then went to Henry county, Va. Stopped at 
Cathei'wood. Set up shop there in a nice as well as wealthy neighbor- 
hood. In three years I married one of Spottsylvania's fair daughters, 
and when we moved home her father made a negro bring out wag- 
ons, and her goods were put in, and then her father called out a 
fifteen-year-old negro girl and a boy eight years old and said, "My 
daughter, here is a woman to cook and wash, and a boy to catch your 
old man 's horse ' ', and I had to give him my best thanks. 

We lived at Cathei'wood two years, and I thought I had money 
enough to buy a home in Missouri ; and in 1841 we moved out there, 
bought a home in St. Charles county, and are on it yet. My wife's 
father died; we got a lift. Her single sister died; we got a lift. 
She had an old bachelor uncle who died, and willed her about $5,000. 

In 1861 the Civil War came on, and we had fourteen likely negroes 
with about $9,000 that went. We had a good farm, 360 acres, stock 
money, etc., and have it yet, and it is worth about the same. 

Now, to your Honorable Conniiittee, I do not want this read before 
the crowd. I am pleased to see so many old familiar names in your 
crowd. 

My wife died the sixteenth of November, 1899. We lived together 
sixty years, two months, and four days. She died in her eightieth year, 
and I have turned on my ninety the first day of last month. I am in 
good health at present ; all my faculties are in perfect order ; left eye is 
failing; I am writing this without glasses, but it is getting very 
difficult. 

Would like to be with you, but my age will not permit it — 1,020 
miles. I wish you a happy Reunion. 

Yours truly, 

John Smith. 



Echoes of the Reunion 



143 




Honorable J. C, Fritchart 
United States Circuit Judge 



Echoes of the Reunion 



A Good Thing 

By Frank S. Woodson, of the Richmond Times-Dispatch 

The man or woman, as the case may be, who originated the idea of 
issuing a call to scattered natives of North Carolina to assemble once 
more on the sacred soil and do honor to the good old State that gave 
them birth, is entitled to a monument as high as any that marks the 
grave of any departed son. 

It does not matter if he or she did borrow the idea from oiir New 
England friends, who put so much store by their "old-home week". 
One is entitled to a due measure of credit for bori-owing, if he borrows 
a good thing. 



The Reunion 
By Colonel Paul B. Means 

This is a wonderful result and event here today, on Guilford Court- 
house battleground. I have seen a great many meetings of the people 
in North Carolina, for a great many purposes, during the last thirty 
years. I have never seen one which was more productive of good for 
our State than this, the "First North Carolina Eeunion". I feel, imder 
its influence, as one who, for fifty years, has lovingly watched and 
studied the benefits and blessings and glories of his own home State 
and, with all his soul filled to overflowing with its high and hallowed 
memories, is gently turned, under the gixidance of the "Spirit of 
truth", to a beatific vision of North Carolina's glorious future, surpass- 
ing as far her past, in every respect, as her present surpasses the times 
of her aborigines. This is no mere imagination ; it is a living picture 
to me of "things to come", as the fruits of the thoughts, feelings, and 
actions of North Carolinians hereafter. 

And then, too, this meeting had an effect and blessing far beyond 
the borders of our State. It has begun the uniting of the hearts of the 

145 



146 First North Carolina Reunion 

"folks at home" with the hearts of our sons and daughtei-s absent from 
' ' the Old North State ", in a way and to a degree that neither ever felt 
or realized before. And this will continue, under the blessing of our 
Father in heaven, until it will add new strains to the angels' song of 
"Peace on Earth, and Good Will to Men", throughout all the States 
of this God-blessed Republic of ' ' sun-cro^vned ' ' men and women. 

Every great, practical result is simply the concrete form of previous 
thought and action. Two men stand pre-eminent in North Carolina 
as the creators of this Reunion on this battlefield. First, Judge David 
Schenck; without whose thought and action the Guilford Battle 
Ground and its present heroic history, for North Carolina, would not 
have been what they are today, and, judging the future by a hundred 
years of the past, would never have been what they are today, and this 
Reunion would never have been held on this sacred soil. Second, it 
was through the action of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, in whose great soul 
the idea of this Reunion was conceived and born, that did most for its 
production. Without this great educator, this star of the first magni- 
tude in the educational firmament of the "States United", this great 
Reunion would not have been. All honor to the names of Mclver and 
Schenck, now and at all the future North Carolina Reunions, when they 
occur on this spot annually, as they will. For, these Reunions will be 
as perpetual as this place of "Fame's eternal camping-ground". 
Because this place, as it now exists, and this Reunion are full of the 
immortality of the two mighty souls of which they are the love-fruits ; 
and year after year, while time lasts, North Carolinians and other 
Americans will see similar scenes right here, only more loving and more 
glorious. 

God bless North Carolina and this Republic. 



Let It Be Made Permanent 
Br/ J. P. Caldwell 

North Carolina Day for once has been properly celebrated in the 
State. Greensboro has won the right to a monument, commemorating 
the fii-st great Reunion of the ' ' dispersed-abroad ' '. Others may be held 
in the future; but to Greensboi-o belongs the honor of having paved the 
way. 

It was pleasant to have the visitors; but the best results were 
wrought upon our home people. There was no one there who did not 
leave a better North Carolinian. Dr. Charles D. Mclver and his co- 
workers in behalf of the Reunion covered themselves with glory. 




Mr. .1. I*. Caldwrll 
One of tlic I,en<Iiiiii Kditors of North C:m liiia 



First North Carolina Reunion 147 

Greensboro acquired new luster from the event. It was the unanimous 
sense of those present that the occasion must be made permanent, and 
so, indeed, it should be. 



A Glorious Inspiration 
Extract from Editorial of Colonel R. B. Creecy 

Our sister town of Greensboro, ever foremost in good works for our 
dear old State, has outdone herself this week, and has accomplished a 
work of love and patriotism that entitles her to the gratitude of every 
man and woman, wherever their lot may be cast, in whose veins a drop 
of North Carolina blood courses. 

This week it has stretched out its arms of loving welcome to all the 
sons of the Old North State, wherever they be, and whatever their 
condition, to come home and rejoice with us around their old hearth- 
stone, where they were caressed by a mother's love, and where life was 
ever fresh and joys ever new. And she has invited our home boys to 
come to the festival, and help to welcome our scattered sons. 

She has thrown her doors wide open, and asked all Carolina's sons 
away from home to walk in without knocking, hang up their hats, and 
make themselves at home. It was a glorious inspiration at Greensboro, 
this idea of a reunion of our scattered sons and daughters around their 
old family altars. They all love her, wherever they be; they all turn 
to her with loving eyes ; they rejoice with us in all her heroic renown ; 
thej^ love her the more for her faults and shortcomings; and they look 
with patriotic hopefulness upon her bright future. Would that we 
could have been there to rejoice with them on this grand occasion ! We 
were not forgotten ; and we were tempted to forget age and infirmities 
and join the procession of our loving sons who have come back to ren- 
der homage to their old mother. 

This is not all that Greensboro has done for us ; and we lift our hat 
in reverence and honor. 

See her glorious Guilford Battle Ground. Always revere and cher- 
ish the honored name that resurrected and burnished its history. Let 
our children learn to lisp his name, and recount his patriotic story. 
Let his monument stand at the outer gates of the Battle Park. 
Let flowers crown its summit; and let us recall his benign and 
intellectual face, and even invoke blessings upon the memory of 
David Sehenck, the founder of the Guilford Battle Ground, the 
man who changed the current of history, and with pen and voice placed 



148 First Nortli Carolina Reunion 

the laurel leaf of honor upon the brow of North Carolina, wave honor 
to whom honor was due, and challenged the world to deny the true 
record of our Revolutionary history. 



Home-Coming Reunion 

By Jamcx II ilei/ Forbis 

The maternal call to come back home — ■ 
First given by the city of "Flowers"; 
Then by the Governor under the dome ; 
Then by the Legislative powers 
For all who wander, where'er they roam. 
To stop and ponder, and come back home. 

Now comes, from the pines and sands of the East- 
From the mountains and eaves of the West — 
From the birds of song and wildest beast — 
From river and rill and mountain crest ; 
At dawn, at noon, when the day is done. 
Rings the glad welcome — Come back home. 

O tired prodigal, once more return, 

To the home of yoiw early youth ; 

Where still the fires so brightly burn. 

On the altars of love and truth. 

Whei'e 'er ye be 'neath Heaven 's blue dome. 

One and all — oh ! come back home. 

This swelling song of welcome tells 

A story of love and beauty 

To each wandering one, where'er he dwells, 

If there he has done his duty 

Mother State still claims him as her own ; 

Still lovingly bids him come back home. 

Prom the Southern seas and yellow sands. 
Where the orange blossoms grow ; 
From the Northern lakes, where icy hands 
Pile frozen foam and drifting snow ; 
We hear them sigh in homesick tone — 
"We're all once more coming back home". 




Honorable Joseph M. Hill 

Chief Justice - Elei5l of the Supreme Court of Arkansas 



First North Carolina Reunion 149 

From the Eastern cities' crowded halls — 
Prom the forests and plains of the West — 
Prom the highly gilded palace walls — 
Prom the cabin where the hunter's at rest — 
Prom the thronged conrt, and the prairie lone, 
They sigh and sing — "We are coming back home". 

The mitred priest and LL. D., 

The cowboy from the Western wild, 

The men and women — band and few 

Who saw the light when but a child, 

'Neath Carolina's maternal dome 

All sigh and sing — "We are coming back home". 



Among Our Non- Resident Native Lawyers 

It is worthy of note that Judge Fitzgerald, now Senior Associate 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Nevada, will on the first 
day of January, 1905, become the Chief Justice. 

At the recent election (1904), in the State of Ai'kansas, Judge 
Joseph M. Hill was elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of thnt 
State. 

The late Honorable Henry G. Turner, after his long and useful 
career in Congress, adorned the Supreme Court bench of Georgia up 
to the time of his last illness. 

North Carolina has also a son on the Supreme Court bench of 
Virginia. 

W. W. Puller, Esq., of New York, has accumiUated a larger fortune 
from the practice of the law than any other lawyer from the South. 

There are hundreds of others scattered in these forty-seven States, 
who are rapidly making name and winning fame. 



Among the Grandsons 

]\lr. Murat Halstead, the veteran and distinguished writer, whose 
books, editorials, magazine articles, and newspaper correspondence, are 
a part of the history of the last half-century of this Republic, is a 
grandson. His grandfather, John Halstead, lived in Currituck 
County; and his father left the State when quite young. 



150 



First North Carolina Reunion 



The great Union Admiral, David Farragut, was a grandson of 
North Carolina. His mother was a native of Lenoir County. 

The great Confederate General, Nathaniel B. Forrest, was another 
grandson. His father was horn in Orange County. 

The mother of the celebrated artist, Whistler, was a native of Wil- 
mington, N. C. 

The father of General Luke E. Wright, who succeeded Secretary -of- 
War Taft as Governor of the Philippines, was a native of Halifax 
County, N. C. 

Dr. Albert Shaw, the editor of the Review of Reviews, is a great- 
grandson of North Carolina, being a descendant of John Halstead, of 
Currituck County. 

Missouri is indebted to North Carolina for her newly-elected Gov- 
ernor, Folk, as well as for the great Thomas H. Benton, who was a 
native of Orange County. 




Around the Ancestral 
Hearthstone 



151 




Colonel A. B. Andrews 



First Vice-President of the Southern Railway Company, and the I.artjest 
Individual Contributor to Reunion 



"Reunion" Changed to "Old- Home Week" 



In piirsuanee of the original plan of the promoters of the First 
Reunion, to make of it a State affair, and to hold it annually, the 
Board of Managers, at the first meeting; at the Benbow Hotel after the 
pronounced success of the Reunion of 1903, passed the following reso- 
hitions : 

Whereas, It was planned in the original conception of the North 
Cai'olina Reunion that the same should be made pei-manent, and that 
there should be an annual Reunion at such time and place as the North 
Carolina Reunion Association Company might from year to year deter- 
mine; and 

Whereas, it has been strongly urged by the non-residents attending 
the North Carolina Reunion this year at Greensboro, N. C, and also 
by letters from numerous non-residents who were unable to be present, 
that the organization known and chartered as the North Carolina 
Reunion Association Company should be completed, and that the 
necessary steps should be taken at once for a permanent annual 
Reunion to be held at Greensboro, N. C. ; and 

Whereas, it has been further urged by visiting non-residents that 
Greensboro is the most central and accessible point, both for the non- 
resident and the resident, and that after each anniial Reunion special 
excursion rates may be obtained each year for the various points in 
the State; and 

Whereas, new and other additional features have been suggested 
and urged to make each succeeding Reunion more pleasant and more 
successful ; therefore, be it 

Resolved, by the Board of Managers of the North Carolina Reunion 
Association Company, that there shall be held at Greensboro, N. C, in 
1904, another Reunion, under the auspices of the North Carolina 
Reunion Association Company, and annually thei-eafter; and that 
special or excursion rates be arranged for the remainder of the week, 
by which visiting non-residents will be enabled to visit the various 
points in the State ; and that the whole of said week shall hereafter b« 
known as the North Carolina Old-Home Week, for all non-i-esident 
North Carolinians. 

K N. C. R.—XI 153 



154 First North Carolina Reunion 

That it is the purpose of the present management to make this 
annual Reunion a State affair, and to this end every resident of the 
State is cordially invited to join in this patriotic effort by becoming a 
stockholder in the said North Carolina Reunion Association Company. 

CHARLES D. McIVER, Chairman; 

ROBERT R. KING, 

J. W. FRY, 

J. A. ODELL, 

CEASAR CONE, 

GEO. S. BRADSHAW, 

Board of Managers. 

ROBERT D. DOUGLAS, Secretary. 



Subsequent to the adoption of the foregoing resolutions, it became 
apparent that it would not be desirable to attempt to hold a Reunion 
or Old-Home Week during the year 1904, on account of the quadx'en- 
nial campaign and election, which would largely interfere with its 
success, by preventing the attendance of a large number of non-resi- 
dents who had expressed a desire to be present, and who concurred in 
this view of the Board of Managers. 

It is also worthy of note that the decision of the Board of Managers 
to name the Reunion the Old-Home Week, and to devise ways and 
means by which visiting non-residents can visit various points in the 
State during said week, has mot with universal approval. 




Hcunicin Smnciiir 



Beautiful Souvenir 



A beautiful and unique badge was designed and made as a 
souvenir of the occasion.* More than eight thousand of these 
were distributed in and out of the State. On the top of the outer 
margin of the face of the badge was this inscription: "Carolina! 
Carolina ! Heaven's Blessings Attend Her ! " At the bottom : "Greens- 
boro, October 12-13. " On the face of the badge were both the National 
and the State flags. In the center of the face was inscribed: "First 
Reunion of Tarheels, 1903", while above this were the words "Indi- 
vidual Liberty". Attached to the badge proper were two slips of rib- 
bon, one of which was white, and on which was printed in gilded letters: 
"Roanoke Island, Alamance, Mecklenburg, Halifax, Guilford Court- 
house, Bethel, Gettysburg, Appomattox, Cardenas, San Juan" ; and one 
of which was red, and on which was printed in gilded letters : "Educa- 
tion, Good Roads, Manufactures." 

This is strikingly suggestive — suggestive of what we are, what we 
have done, and what we are now doing. In short, it is an epitome of 
the State's historv. 



* See illustratiou fronting this page. 

155 



States Represented 



The f ollowiug is a list of the States represented at the Reunion : 
Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, 
Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Marj-land, 
Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, 
New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, 
Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia. Total, 30 States; also 
District of Columbia and Canada. 



156 




Mr. .losephus Daniels 

One of the Leveling Editors of North Carolina 



North Carolina Mecca 

By Josephus Datiielx 



Every boy born in Massachusetts, or born of Massachusetts parents, 
is religiously taken, as the Jewish children went up to the holy city to 
the holy feasts, to Bunker Hill, to see where the New England patriots 
won immortal glory. Too few of the sons of North Carolina, residing 
in the State, have pressed the sacred sod where Southern men won 
imperishable fame, almost in sight of the present magnificent Guilford 
Courthouse, the county seat of Guilford county. 

Indeed, a hundred years passed before the children of this State 
knew the significance of the battle of Guilford Courthouse. They had 
all learned the story of Bunker Hill in the public schools ; but few, out- 
side of the immediate descendants of the heroes of that battle, knew 
that the battle of Guilford Courthouse made Yorktown possible. North 
Carolinians in every decade have made glorious history, but they have 
not written it. It remained for the late Judge David Schenck (peace 
to his ashes!) to write the triie stoiy of the battle of Guilford Court- 
house, and to rescue from the tomb of forgetfulness the name and fame 
of men who had done as much to secure their country's liberty as any 
of the soldiers of the ages immortalized in song and story. It remained 
for the progressive citizens of Greensboro to organize the Guilford 
Battle Ground Association, which rescued that battlefield of glory from 
neglect, and to make it the historic rallying ground of Piedmont North 
Carolina. For a dozen years the chief celebration of the natal day of 
the Republic has been fittingly observed on the battlefield of Guilford 
Courthouse, and thousands and tens of thousands of North Carolinians 
have come to make a sacred pilgrimage on every recurring Fourth of 
July to this battlefield. But comparatively few of the 327,070 native- 
born North Carolinians now residing in other States have ever turned 
their faces to this North Carolina Mecca. 



157 



Guilford Courthouse Battlefield 

By President Joseph M. Morehead, qf the Guilford Battle Ground Company 



The Gnilford Battle Ground Company was organized ^lay 16. 1887. 
at Greensboi-o, N. C. It lias redeemed from waste the battlefield of 
Guilford Courthouse, adorned it as a park, and erected monuments 
thereon. The company owns one hundred acres of this battlefield, 
which is laid off in M'alks, drives, and avenues. There are upon it 
twenty-one monuments, already completed. Two, voted by the last 
Congress to the memory of Generals Francis Nash and William Lee 
Davidson, are soon to be erected by the National government. The 
monuments and their inscriptions set forth the honorable record of 
North Carolina diiring both the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, 
with the exception, greatly to be regretted, for the present, of the noble 
deeds of the North Carolina sons of Liberty at Wilmington in 1765-66. 
Five delightful springs are fitted up. Lake Wilfong, on the grounds, 
is a lovely sheet of water. Ten thousand people attend the Fourth of 
July celebration every year, and the addresses all rise to the dignity of 
history. The Museum of Relies is a most valuable and interesting 
feature. The battle was fought between General Nathaniel Greene and 
Lord Cornwallis, March 15, 1781, and the British were driven from the 
State. 

Here was struck the blow which drove Cornwallis from the State, 
and broke the power of Great Britain in the Southern Department, at 
that moment a consummation essential to American independence. 



158 




Major Joseph M. MortlR-ail 
President of the Guilford Battle Grouiui Company 



Guilford Battlefield — Two Fads Emphasized 

Extract from an address by G. S. Bradshaw, Esq. 



There are two facts above all others entitled to emphasis. 

First. It is the only battlefield of the Revolution which has been 
reclaimed, adorned, and preserved in its entirety. Its history, its 
heritage, and its glory are, therefore, the common property of the 
whole country. This historic spot is hallowed scarcely more by the 
memories of the brave deeds of dead heroes than by the self-sacrificing 
efforts of the few who have been dutifully engaged in the patriotic 
work of preserving it. Across its sacred acres the line of Mason and 
Dixon never ran. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
Virginia, South Carolina, and the other States whose heroes fought 
and perished, may here meet on common ground and cover with tear 
and flower the sacred dust of the fathers. These one hundred acres 
were reserved when the fateful line aforesaid was run. They belonged 
then — they are tendered now — to the Government for which they drank 
the lifeblood of patriotic heroes. It is now a magnificent Battle Park, 
with its charming groves of stately oaks, its beautiful flowers, its lovely 
lake, its cool springs, and its acres of hill and vale covered with beauti- 
ful memorial stones and splendid monuments. And strange as it may 
sound in the materialistic ear of this age, the work so far has been done 
by individual effort. Less than twenty years ago that great lawyer 
and prince of Carolinians, Honorable David Schenek, in the midst of 
the exacting duties of a busy professional life, conceived the idea of the 
redemption and preservation of this great battlefield. The enthusiasm 
of his great soul reached high tide in its execution. He seciired a char- 
ter, and organized a company, of which he was president and leader. 
Its capital stock was taken by a few patriotic citizens. The company 
now owns this Battle Park. The purchase money for the same, together 
with all of the incidental and necessary expenses of the company, was 
thus paid by private individuals. In the same way many of the monu- 
ments have been secured. For the past ten years the State 's legislature 
has supplemented individual effort with an annual appropriation of 
five hundred dollars. This sum is a mere pittance in the support of 

150 



160 First North Carolina Reunion 

the great burden of maintaining and preserving it. The Stai-s and 
Stripes float not over another historic spot which has levied and exacted 
so great a tax upon the patriotism of the individual. 

The late Judge Schenck is succeeded by Major Joseph M. Morehead, 
the present president, who is not less zealous in all efforts for the pro- 
motion of the great object of the company. 

Second. This battle was the critical, the pivotal, and the turning 
point in the stupendous struggle. From its bloody and terrible blow 
Cornwallis reeled, staggered, and fell seven months thereafter at York- 
town. If not the greatest and bloodiest struggle of the Revolution in 
daring, reckless valor, and in priceless sacrifice, it was the greatest in 
its effect and in its result. It was the one fatal wound from which the 
British forces never rallied. The more one studies it the more it grows 
in greatness — in its stupendous results, and the more clearly one is 
convinced that history has done scant justice to that lustrous and glori- 
ous day. Surely this great government can afford to maintain and 
preserve in its entirety one great battlefield of the Revolution, and 
where is there in all that bloody drama one that appeals more .strongly 
to the pride and patriotism of this Republic? The National Govern- 
ment for more than three decades, in the natural and pious duty of 
preserving tlie memories that throng and cluster about the glorious 
battlefields of the war between the States, has seemed to ignore the 
earlier but no-less-glorious struggle of the fathers. This should not be. 
From a national standpoint the father fought to establish it. The son 
fought to preserve it. Each was a great war, and each was without a 
iiarallel in the annals of time in the awful sacrifice of blood and life. 
Both father and son were victorious. The Government still lives and 
still grows and is still expanding — in resources boundless, and in 
strength ample and inexhaustible. 

Let the glorious memories that attach to the scenes of the struggles 
of each live and be preserved. 

"One crowded hour of glorious life 
Is worth an age without a name. ' ' 

One needs to recur to the lessons tavight by the history of the early 
struggles of his ancestry to appreciate the wondrous fabric over which 
the old flag floats today. It is fit, therefore, that one of the two 
days of the first great Reunion of the non-rpsident natives of North 
Carolina should be devoted to the old battlefield of Guilford Court- 
house, where we may all read and study again its glorious history in 
the beautiful tablets and splendid monuments with which it has been 
adorned by the munificence of patriotic and public-spirited individuals. 




ilinu)r.il)lL- A. M, Aikfii, ot' X'iryinia 

JiuljiC of Ci)ii>orntioii Ccimt 



First North Carolina Reunion 161 

The home-coming non-resident will repair there on the second day 
of the great Reunion to rekindle at its altar the fiame of love for his 
old mother State, and to renew his allegiance to the fadeless memories 
of his patriotic sires, whose valor there wrote in crimson letters "the 
purple testament of bleeding war ' '. And whilst they linger, both non- 
resident and resident will strike hands in the patriotic effort to induce 
the national Government to extend its fostering hand of help in the 
permanent presei'\-ation of this great battlefield. 




North Carolina's Contribution to American 

Citizenship 



North Carolina has given her lifeblood most freely to the building 
up of other States. Today 236,037 native-born North Carolinians 
reside in other Commonwealths. She has contributed to American 
citizenship the best that the nation has to show. In the colonial period, 
her people stood boldly for liberty, self-government, freedom from 
excessive taxation and official tyranny. In adopting the Constitution, 
she stood for all the amendments, which were afterwards accepted, and 
which now form the constitutional basis of our liberties. 

It was her sons, Andrew Jackson and Thomas H. Benton, who 
wiped out all traditions and tendencies of monarchy and aristocracy, 
and planted deep in American soil the tree of democracy. 

It was her son, James K. Polk, who annexed Texas, and extended 
the American Republic from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

It was her son, William A. Graham, who opened the doors of Japan 
to civilization, and thus made a beginning of final settlement of the 
Asiatic question. 

It was her son, Andrew Johnson, who had the North Carolina grit 
to jeopardize his great office, by opposing the coercive measures of 
Reconstruction directed against an integral part of the Union. 

It was her son, Richard J. Gatling, who promoted peace by invent- 
ing the death-dealing Gatling gun. 

Her sons have done great deeds and thought great thoughts wher- 
ever they have gone. No statesmen have surpassed them in integrity, 
purity, and patriotism. No soldiers have equaled them in steadfast- 
ness, endurance, and fortitude. They were born North Carolinians, 
and trained in North Carolina virtues. They loved the family fireside, 
and all that the family fireside means. They still love it, and, though 
they dwell now in cities or on plains, they long to go to the State of 
their birth, and see again the people who live as they lived in their 
youth ; to see again the Old North State, where people do not grow old 
before their time; where youth is buoyant and virile; manhood is 
strong and sturdy; and old age is full of dignity, honor, and self- 
respect. 

All hail to the sons of North Carolina who will come to this our 
first Reunion ! May they live to come again and again ; and may the 
Reunion, this year inaugurated, endure and grow greater forever! 

162 



Marvelous Record of North Carolina from 
1890 to 1900 

By C. H. Poe 



lu 1890 North Carolina was sixteenth in rank in population; in 
1900 she was fifteenth. 

In 1890 North Carolina ranked twenty-third in gross value of agri- 
cultural products; in 1900 she was twentieth. 

In 1890 North Carolina ranked thirty-first in gross value of agri- 
cultural products; in 1900 she was twenty-eighth. 

In other words, during the decade we forged forward one point in 
population, three points in agriculture, and three points in manufac- 
tures — a total net gain of seven points in rank among the States. 

No other Southern State made such a record. In fact, if we are to 
accept the criterion of progress with which we started out — that of 
gain in rank among the States in population, gross value of agricul- 
tural products, and gross value of manufactured products — it appears 
that North Carolina is not only the most progressive Southern State, 
but the most progressive old State, North or South. 

In proof of this, I have gone over the census reports to get a rating 
in progressiveness of each Commonwealth, and have been as much 
pleased as astonished to find that North Carolina's net gain of seven 
points in rank was equaled by no old State, North, South, or West, 
and by but one new State, Montana (with a net gain of eleven points), 
and that wonderful new territory, Oklahoma (with a net gain of thirty- 
two points). 



Relative Rank of States and Territories 

Let us see ; considering together the three divisions — population, 
manufactures, and agriculture — and giving each State credit for the 
number of points gained in one or more divisions less the number of 

163 



164 First North Carolina Reunion 

points lost, if any, in any division, it develops that the following States 
ranked higher in 1900 than in 1890, by the number of points men- 
tioned : 

Arizona, 4; Colorado, 2; Indiana, 3; Iowa, 2; Louisiana, 3; Minne- 
sota, 4 ; Missouri, 1 ; Montana, 11 ; Nebraska, 6 : North Carolina, 7 ; 
North Dakota, 6; Ohio, 1; Oklahoma, 32; South Carolina, 1; South 
Dakota, 1 ; Texas, 3 ; Virginia, 2 -, Washington, 3 ; West Virginia, 5 ; 
Wisconsin, 4. 

The following States held exactly the same general rank in 1900 as 
in 1890 : Kansas, Kentucky, Tennessee. 

The following States declined in population, agriculture, or manu- 
factures during the decade, so that their general rank was lower in 
1900 than in 1890, by the number of points given. I will indicate by 
letter P, A, and M, in what division the decline occurred: Alabama, 
P, A, M, 6 ; Arkansas, P, A, M, 3 ; California, A, 3 ; Connecticut, A, 6 ; 
Delaware, P, A, M, 14 ; District of Columbia, P, A, M, 8 ; Florida, A, 
M, 5 ; Georgia, A, M, 4 ; Idaho, P, M, C ; Illinois, A, 1 ; Maine, A, JI, 7 ; 
Indiana, A, 1 ; Massachusetts, P, M, 6 ; Michigan, A, M, 4 ; Mississippi, 
A, M, 5 ; Nevada, P, A, M, 13 ; New Hampshire, P, A, M, 11 ; New Jer- 
sey, P, A, 3 ; New Mexico, P, M, 4 ; New York, A, 2 ; Oregon, JI, 6 ; 
Pennsylvania, A, 3 ; Rhode Island, A, 7 ; Utah, P, A, M, 9 ; Vermont, 
P, A, 6 ; Wyoming, P, M, 7. 



Just How North Carolina Gained 

The reader may wish to know by this time just how far North Caro- 
lina exceeded not only her 1890 rank, but her 1890 record. Here are 
the figures : 

In 1890 our population was 1,617,947 ; in 1900 it was 1,893,810. 

In 1890 the gross value of our agricultural products was $50,070,- 
530 ; in 1900 it was .$89,309,638— nearly doubled in ten years. 

In 1890 the gross value of our manufactured products was $40,375,- 
450 ; in 1900 it was $94,919,663— more than doubled in ten years. 

In 1890 the per capita value of our agricultural products was $31; 
in 1900, $47. 

In 1890 the per capita value of our manufactured products was 
$25 ; in 1900, $50. 



What It All Means 

Let us not overlook the plain teaching of these figures. The.v indi- 
cate unmistakably that North Carolina is forging more rapidly to the 




(Iroui) of Prominent Noi-th Carolina Educators 

President George T. Winston, of A. S; M. College 
President Charles L. Taylor, of Wake Forest College President John C. Kilgo, of Trinity College 

President F. P. Venahle, of the University of North Carolina 
President Lyndon h. Hobte, of Gnilford College President W. W. Staley, of Elon College 

President Henry Louis Smith, of Davidson College 



i 



Jl 



First North Carolina Reunion 



165 



front than any other old State ; that it is a new country, or, at any rate, 
a country with a new consciousness of power and a new realization of 
unused resources that is sending it forward with more rapid strides 
toward the top than any other State east of the Rockies is taking. 

It has long been said that ' ' North Carolina is a good State to move 
from". The verdict of the census is that it is now one of the best 
States iu the Union to move to. 



The State's Song — The Old North State 

Gastmi 



Carolina, Carolina! Heaven's blessings attend her! 
While we live we will cherish, protect, and defend her ; 
Though the seorner may sneer at and witlings defame her. 
Our hearts swell with gladness whenever we name her. 

Hurrah! Hurrah! the Old North State forever! 
Hurrah ! Hurrah ! The good Old North State. 

Though she envies not others their merited glory, 
Say, whose name stands foremost in Liberty's story? 
Though too true to herself e 'er to crouch to oppression, 
Who can yield to just rule a more loyal submission? 
Hurrah, etc. 

Plain and artless her sons, but whose doors open faster 
At the knock of a stranger, or the tale of disaster? 
How like to the rudeness of their dear native mountains, 
With rich ore in their bosoms, and life in their fountains. 
Hurrah, etc. 

And her daughters, the Queen of the Forest resembling. 
So graceful, so constant, yet to gentlest breath trembling. 
And true lightwood at heart, let the match be applied them. 
How they kindle and flame ! Oh ! none know but who 've tried them. 
Hurrah, etc. 

Then let all those who love us, love the land that we live in 
(As happy a region as on this side of Heaven), 
Where Plenty and Freedom, Love and Peace smile before us. 
Raise aloud, raise together, the heart-thrilling chorus. 
Hurrah, etc. 



166 



Greensboro's Phenomenal Growth Since 1890 



Population in 1890, 3,317. 
Population in 1900, 10,035. 

Including the mill villages and other suburban settlements, the pop- 
ulation in 1903 is 22,000. 

Elevation above sea level, 843 feet. 



Greensboro's Location 

In the center of North Carolina. 

In the midst of the world's finest bright-tobacco belt. 

In the center of one of the largest and most prosperous cotton-mill 
sections in the South. 

In the heart of the furniture-manufacturing district in the South. 

In the midst of a fine grain region, and on the edge of the cotton- 
fields. 

In the center of the finest fruit-growing section in the entire South. 

Within a radius of sixty miles there are 600,000 people. 

Eighty-three cotton mills, with over $10,000,000 capital, 28,000 
looms, and 700,000 spindles. 

Sixty-four furniture and chair factories. 

Twelve hosiery mills. 

One carpet mill. 

Dozens of all kinds of lumber manufacturing plants, tobacco fac- 
tories, and other industries. 



Some of the Things Greensboro Has 

1. Railroad facilities equal to those of any town of like popula- 
tion in the United States. Seven lines extend from the city in as many 
different directions, giving unrivaled freight and passenger service. 

167 



168 



First North Carolina Reunion 



Forty-two passenger and dozens of freight trains leave Greensboro 
every day. The city is on the main trunk line of the great Southern 
Railway, and is one of that system's most important points. 

2. Forty-two separate and distinct diversified manufacturing 
plants, embracing cotton, tobacco, shoes, pants and overalls, carpets, 
shirts, furniture, bobbins, shuttles, cornice work, wagons and carriages, 
exhaust- and blow-pipes, dust-fans and dust-collectors, sash, doors, and 
blinds, mantels and tables, brooms, sawmills, cane-mills, plows, cast- 



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ings, stoves, candy, chewing gum, ice, etc. The products of these con- 
cerns find a ready market all over this country and in foreign lands. 

3. Eighteen wholesale houses, supplying a large territory with dry 
goods, notions, shoes, drugs, groceries, hardware, mill supplies, etc. 

4. Two hundred and forty-three retail stores. 

5. Five separate banking houses, with assets of .$2,500,550. 

6. The home oSices of two life insurance and five fire insurance 
companies. 

7. Five separate colleges and six graded schools, with an aggregate 
yearly attendance of 3,200 students. 




Dr. 



Allison Hodges 



President of North Carolina .Society of Kichnionci, Va. 



First North Carolina Eeunion 169 

8. Twenty-six church edifices. 

9. Two companies furnishing: electricity for light and power, one 
company furnishing gas for light and power, water works (owned by 
the city), sewerage, a well-equipped fire department, and a new and 
up-to-date electric street railway. 

10. The most modern theatre between Washington and Atlanta. 

11. A new city hall and market house, just completed at a cost of 
$35,000. 

12. A government building for the accommodation of the post- 
ofiice and United States courts, the resident United States district 
judge, and other court officers. 

13. Five first-class hotels give Greensboro the best hotel accommo- 
dations of any city of its size in the South. 

14. One of the handsomest and most-conveniently-arranged rail- 
way passenger depots in the South. 

15. Two daily newspapers, one secular weekly, two religious week- 
lies, one semi-monthly magazine. 

— Colonel Al Fairbrother. 



"Pat" Winston's Last Message 



Extradl from letter of the late Honorable P. H. Winston 

Of Spokane, Wash. 

I can not go, but if I were present I would say: 

North Carolinians: hold fast to the teachings and ti'aditions of your fore- 
fathers. A century of inherited learning, virtue, and valor has made you of all 
peoples the happiest, of all peoples the most homogeneous. 

Nowhere is there a people with habits, faiths, and hopes so fi.xed. Nowhere 
is there a people whose past is more glorious; whose future is more secure. 
Your commonwealth is built upon imperishable foundations; law, religion, 
virtue, and learning — these are its cornerstones. The same spirit that animated 
your forefathers to bear the flag of revolution at Guilford Courthouse — that 
animated your fathers to bear the banner of the "Lost Cause" at Gettysburg — 
still dwells within your breasts. 

Across a continent, from a State where now lives a son of Zebulon B. Vance 
and a son of Patrick H. Winston, I have come to breathe once more the sweet 
air of childhood, and mingle once more with the companions of schoolboy days. 
I love your State — my State; I love its history, f\ill of glorious annals; I love 
its dead — matchless galaxy of greatness; I love its living. 

I-. N. C. R.—XII 



An Epitome 



Discovered in 1584 by Amidas and Barlowe. Temporarily colon- 
ized in 1585 by people sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh. Permanently 
settled in 1653 by colonists on the banks of the Chowan and Roanoke. 
Governed by the Lord Proprietors between 1663 and 1729. Governed 
by the Crown from 1729 to 1775. Self-governed from 1775 to 1789, 
when it became a member of the Union. Such is the historical etching 
of the State of North Carolina. But how inadequate are the outlines ! 
The true lines and colors are to be foimd in that portrait which but 
seldom meets the gaze of the great, searching, discriminating world. 

All epitome of material achievements may be given in a few typical 
figures. Because of the wanderings of her sons, the population of 
North Carolina increased during the past twenty years but thirty -five 
per cent., while that of the United States increased fifty-two per cent. 
But, in spite of the wanderings of her sons, thus reflected in the com- 
paratively small rate of increase in population, the State increased the 
value of its agricultural products seventy-two per cent., as against one 
hundred and thirteen per cent, for the whole country ; and the value 
of its manufactured products three hundred and seventy-two per cent., 
as against one hundred and forty-two per cent, for the whole country. 
At the same time, it reduced its white illiteracy from thirty-one and 
five-tenths per cent, to nineteen and four-tenths per cent., and its negro 
illiterac.y from seventy-seven and four-tenths per cent, to forty-seven 
and six-tenths per cent. ; and, as the Reunion itself demonstrated, 
retained its quota of orators. 

— Editor and Compiler. 



170 



The Purest Anglo-Saxon State on the Globe 

" Once a Tarheel, Always a Tarheel " 

Extract Jrom Speech qf President George T. Whiston, before the North 
Carolina Society of New York 



It has often been asked ' ' what is a Tarheel ? ' ' The first description 
of a Tarheel is given by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey. When 
Achilles was born, his mother Thetis, to make him immortal, took him 
by the heels and dipped him in the river Styx, now known as Tar 
River. The magic water rendered his body invulnerable. But Thetis 
forgot to stick his heels under, so Achilles was mortal in the heels, and 
the well-aimed arrow of Paris struck him on the shins, and laid him 
low. Achilles was not a Tarheel, but his story gives us a satisfactory 
definition of a Tarheel, as follows: "A Tarheel is the sort of heel that 
the other fellow hasn't got." A negative definition is better than none. 
You have all heard the definition of horse-sense. "Horse-sense — the 
kind of sense a jackass hasn't got." Achilles, for all his brag and blas- 
ter, was weak in his shins ; was most likely an Afro-Grecian : in North 
Carolina today he would travel in the Jim Crow car. 

It has been said that North Carolina is a good State to move from. 
The Colonijil Governors found it so; and Cornwallis, after the battle 
of Guilford, was of the same opinion. It is a good State to move from, 
because a good State to be born and raised in. A man who has lived 
in North Carolina twenty-five j^ears is thereby qualified to be Governor 
of any other State. If to twenty-five years in North Carolina is added 
twenty-five years in Tennessee, there is no limit to the power of such 
a man. Only three men ever did it, and each of them became Presi- 
dent — Jackson, Polk, and Johnson. The Old North State is a Nursery 
of Men. 

People have moved from North Carolina to every other State in the 
Union. But few have moved to North Carolina. It is not easy for a 
man to break into the Old North State. It takes him a year to find out 
who to write to for information. Then the correspondence lasts a 

171 



172 Fi7-st North Carolina Rt union 

year. Then the newspapers announce that he is coniino;, and the people 
discuss it. Finally he starts, and all the trains miss connection as soon 
as they enter the State. Unless a prospective inunigrant starts for 
North Carolina before he is grown, he will be an old man on his arrival. 
North Carolinians are mighty particular about receiving strangers; 
they wish to know with whom they associate. Anybody can get out of 
North Carolina, but it requires a great deal of talent and character to 
get into the State. Less than one-half of one per cent, of our popula- 
tion is foreign born, not one person in 200. "We are the purest bred 
Anglo-Saxon community on the globe. 

The Old North State has made wonderful progress during the past 
thirty years. She is now leading the South in rate of progress. She 
is learning the secret of community power. Formerly the individual 
was everything; it was Gaston, Badger, Mangura, Graham, or More- 
head. Now the community is supreme; one hears no longer of indi- 
viduals, but of communities — of Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, High 
Point, Winston-Salem. Greensboro. The whole is greater than any of 
its parts. The community is greater than any individual. The New 
North State is a State of Community Powers ; of public schools, public 
libraries, public roads, all for public use, supported by public taxation. 
This is government of the people, by the people, for the people ; this is 
genuine Democracy. In the coming years the North State will combine 
the strong character of individualism which marked the Old North 
State, with the strong power of community action, which is making the 
New North State. 



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I lonoralik- Hoke Sniilli 
Secretary of the Interior Diiriii;j: the Second Cleveland Administration 



Song of Scattered Sons 

Btf John Wilbur Jenkins 



From mount and valley, laud and sea, 
Their longing eyes look back to thee. 
Denied thine arms for many a year. 
They ask thy blessing, Mother Dear. 

Some sun-scorched in the Desert's waste, 
Some frozen by the Northwind's blast; 
Grim faces that have braved the brine. 
Dark hands that dug deep in the mine ; 

Those who found gold on every strand 
And those who come with empty hands — 
The step is slow, the hair is gray — 
World-weary since they went away. 

Some in strange lands found wealth and fame. 
And others graves without a name. 
These victors — those beside the way- 
Forget not one this Memory-Day. 

Where the blue mountains kiss the sky. 
In green fields that in Piedmont lie. 
Where hungry Hatteras gnaws the sea — 
Land of the gentle, frank, and free — 

Today the toast and song and cheer 
Are mingled with the tender tear ; 
For some we loved are in the grave. 
Some youthful, noble, loving, brave, 

Proud seious of this clear-eyed race 
That looks the world straight in the face. 
As we disperse to far-off toil, 
Thank God we sprang from her great soil. 

Baltimore, September 25, 1903. 



173 



The Coming Day 

From the Top of Pisgah, Western North Carolina 
B>/ D. C. Waddell 



The cool Dawn, in silent softness, is slowly drifting. 

Drifting toward the coming day : 
The old peaks, in distant dimness, are slumbering, 

Sliunbering where the white mists lay. 

Soft and low, the night winds blow ; 

The heart of the night is sighing; 
Her pride of stars and silver bars 

Over the skies are dying. 

The red East, in crimson richness is widely lifting, 

Lifting the archway of the day ; 
The old peaks in mighty grandeur are towering, 

Towering where the white mists lay. 

Fresh and sweet, on dewy feet. 

The winds of mom are playing; 
They ripple the mist, and listing — list! 

Over the earth are straying. 

The sunlight, in radiant brightness is swift!}' sifting, 

Sifting the .yellow beams of day ; 
The old peaks, in opal splendors are glittering. 

Glittering where the white mists lay. 

Far and wide, on every side, 

The white mist is swaying; 
Across the spray, as it circles away, 

The rainbows are playing. 

Far away, in the light of day, 

The snowy mist is twining; 
In the valleys below, where wild ferns grow, 

The sun is brightly shining. 

Greensboro, N. C, September 25. 
174 



To Her Sons Who Have Wandered Afar 

By Robert Dick Douglas, Corresponding Secretary 



To her sons who have wandered afar, 
Who have gone from the town or the farm 
To run with the swift, to fight with the strong, 
To win life's battle, however long, 
With tireless brain and arm, 
The Old North State sends greetings ; 
And bids them now come home. 

"Come back", she says, "to your mother; 
Come back while yet ye may ; 
Come back to the land that gave ye birth, 
And tread the dearest spot on earth, 
In the old familiar way ; 
Come, clasp the hands of your boyhood friends, 
Tho' it be for only a day." 

"Come, see what my sons have wrought. 
My sons whom ye left behind; 
For the strong, red blood that sent ye forth. 
Into the West or South or North, 
In the veins of these ye '11 find — 
The self -same blood that in life or death 
Ye all together bind." 

"Then come to me every one; 
Gather from near and far; 
For tho' ye 're scattered from sea to sea 
Your mother's love will ever be 
As true as the polar star ; 
And I thank the God who made all men 
For the manner of men ye are. ' ' 



175 



The Wanderer Back Home 

By John Henry Boner 

Back in the Old North State, 

Back to the place of his birth, 
Back throiigh the piues' colonnaded gate 

To the dearest spot on earth. 
No sweeter joy can a star feel 

When into the sky it thrills 
Than the rapture that wings a Tarheel 

Come back to his native hills. 

From coast to nioiinlain heights 

Old North Carolina lies, 
A corniicopia of delights 

Under her summer skies, 
And autumn gives rich treasure 

To the overflowing horn. 
Adding a juicy measure 

Of grape and rye and corn. 

In June a tree so fragrant 

Scents the delicious air 
That busiest bees grow vagrant 

And doze in its blossoms fair. 
' ' Persimmons ! ' ' the wanderer cries ; 

And along time's frosted track 
The luscious purple fruit he spies, 

And boyhood 's days drift back ! 

"With fall conies the burst of the cartridge ; 

The squirrel and rabbit are his; 
DoMTi tumbles the whirring partridge, 

And the cook makes the wild diick siz ; 
But for these not so much does he care, 

No matter how dainty the caters; 
Just seat him fair in an old splint chair 

And give him 'possum and taters. 



176 



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